We need your prayers now more than ever...
I haven't posted anything on this blog yet, but I've mentioned in my myspace blog that my dad had to go in for quadruple open heart bypass surgery this past Thursday. He JUST told me about it the night before (Wed night), saying that he didn't want to worry me and have me take time out to visit him b/c he knows I'm busy with work/school/etc.
I wasn't TOO worried about it at first. Obviously there was some concern, but I've heard of people 20+ years older than him having the surgery and coming out fine. So I spoke to him the the night before as well as the morning of the surgery and he sounded in great spirits, so I didn't stress too much.
Well on Saturday I got a call from the person who took him to the hospital (her name is Katiria. She's a dancer that my dad sponsors for a bunch of cultural events. He was taking her home from an event they had went to b/c he also does photography at the events). But anyways, she told me that my dad still hadn't woken up, so they were getting worried. They said it wasn't common, and that people should wake up after that amount of time, so they did a CT scan on him and found out that he had a small stroke in his frontal lobe. The stroke was on his right side, so it affected the left side of his body, and he had/has some paralysis (don't know if that's permanent or not yet).
So that had me worried, but this was already Sat afternoon and I was in NJ with Ariana, Jordan & Maryann. After speaking with the doctor, he said it wasn't worth it for me to come in, since he wouldn't be waking up, and they were gonna do an MRI on him on Sunday, so there would be no results until Monday. So we made the plan that I would come in on Monday morning.
Well today is Monday, and me and Katiria went to see my dad, and we tried to get him to wake up, but nothing.
Then we spoke to his doctor and she was very honest with us and told us that they are very concerned about him. B/c even if people don't wake up from surgeries right away, they generally will progress as the days go by, and have some kind of reactions, like if you pinch their arm, they should flinch. Well my dad has basically been the same since the first day, and actually it seems like he's gotten worse (no response at ALL).
So at 1pm today, we met with the neurologist and that's when they laid out all the bad news. They got the results of the MRI and it seems my dad has had multiple strokes. They aren't 100% sure why, but their main guess at the moment is that when they put the clamp on his aorta to perform the bypass surgery, some of the plaque and junk in his arteries got loose and went up to his brain, thus causing the strokes.
So the strokes affected both sides of his brain, causing pretty serious brain damage, and they proceeded to tell us that right now the "best case scenario" is that if he woke up he'd need a trach tube to breathe, a feeding tube to eat, he would need to be permanently in a nursing home, he may have speech problems, and last but not least he may have impaired critical thinking (meaning not only would he probably not be able to talk, but he may not even be able to comprehend things when spoken to). [And really, what kind of "best case" is that?]
They basically said at some point we were going to have to have a "quality of life" conversation. B/c my dad is in a coma right now, and technically they can keep him alive forever with the ventilation stuff, but the thing is... should they? And even if my dad does wake up, he'd be a shell of his former self, and I know that wouldn't be a life he'd want to live...
So there is a LOT we need to think about. It's scary, saddening, heart-breaking and I'm just like a zombie right now. I don't even know how I'm typing this... but I just came from his room and I needed to just vent somewhere. And luckily there is a computer here in the family lounge, so I figured I'd just type this all out so I don't have to say it over and over again, b/c it just hurts to think about it.
And that's basically where I'm at at the moment... I've cried my tears for the day (well at least for now, we'll see how I am once I get to the hotel room tonight). Just please keep both my dad as well as me and my family in your prayers because this is looking like a very difficult next few days or weeks.
Thank you so much. I love you all!
I wasn't TOO worried about it at first. Obviously there was some concern, but I've heard of people 20+ years older than him having the surgery and coming out fine. So I spoke to him the the night before as well as the morning of the surgery and he sounded in great spirits, so I didn't stress too much.
Well on Saturday I got a call from the person who took him to the hospital (her name is Katiria. She's a dancer that my dad sponsors for a bunch of cultural events. He was taking her home from an event they had went to b/c he also does photography at the events). But anyways, she told me that my dad still hadn't woken up, so they were getting worried. They said it wasn't common, and that people should wake up after that amount of time, so they did a CT scan on him and found out that he had a small stroke in his frontal lobe. The stroke was on his right side, so it affected the left side of his body, and he had/has some paralysis (don't know if that's permanent or not yet).
So that had me worried, but this was already Sat afternoon and I was in NJ with Ariana, Jordan & Maryann. After speaking with the doctor, he said it wasn't worth it for me to come in, since he wouldn't be waking up, and they were gonna do an MRI on him on Sunday, so there would be no results until Monday. So we made the plan that I would come in on Monday morning.
Well today is Monday, and me and Katiria went to see my dad, and we tried to get him to wake up, but nothing.
Then we spoke to his doctor and she was very honest with us and told us that they are very concerned about him. B/c even if people don't wake up from surgeries right away, they generally will progress as the days go by, and have some kind of reactions, like if you pinch their arm, they should flinch. Well my dad has basically been the same since the first day, and actually it seems like he's gotten worse (no response at ALL).
So at 1pm today, we met with the neurologist and that's when they laid out all the bad news. They got the results of the MRI and it seems my dad has had multiple strokes. They aren't 100% sure why, but their main guess at the moment is that when they put the clamp on his aorta to perform the bypass surgery, some of the plaque and junk in his arteries got loose and went up to his brain, thus causing the strokes.
So the strokes affected both sides of his brain, causing pretty serious brain damage, and they proceeded to tell us that right now the "best case scenario" is that if he woke up he'd need a trach tube to breathe, a feeding tube to eat, he would need to be permanently in a nursing home, he may have speech problems, and last but not least he may have impaired critical thinking (meaning not only would he probably not be able to talk, but he may not even be able to comprehend things when spoken to). [And really, what kind of "best case" is that?]
They basically said at some point we were going to have to have a "quality of life" conversation. B/c my dad is in a coma right now, and technically they can keep him alive forever with the ventilation stuff, but the thing is... should they? And even if my dad does wake up, he'd be a shell of his former self, and I know that wouldn't be a life he'd want to live...
So there is a LOT we need to think about. It's scary, saddening, heart-breaking and I'm just like a zombie right now. I don't even know how I'm typing this... but I just came from his room and I needed to just vent somewhere. And luckily there is a computer here in the family lounge, so I figured I'd just type this all out so I don't have to say it over and over again, b/c it just hurts to think about it.
And that's basically where I'm at at the moment... I've cried my tears for the day (well at least for now, we'll see how I am once I get to the hotel room tonight). Just please keep both my dad as well as me and my family in your prayers because this is looking like a very difficult next few days or weeks.
Thank you so much. I love you all!
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