Saturday, January 17, 2009

Update on Papa

Today has been an up and down day for Papa. They redid and x-ray of his chest and abdomen today. He has a lot of fluid around his lungs called a pleural effusion. This has caused his breathing to be labored and he gets short of breath laying down. They are giving him Lasix to try to get rid of the fluid. His abdomen still is swollen and they have gone back to him having nothing by mouth except medicines. The doctor will be inserting a central line (kind of like a fancy iv in a main vein in the collarbone area) tomorrow. They will do this procedure in his room under local anesthesia. Since he hasn't taken in much by way of eating in about nine days, they will be beginning what's called TPN or total parenteral nutrition. It's a balanced solution containing all of the fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins, etc that his body needs. This will prevent him from getting weaker and weaker. Hopefully we won't need this for too long, but it will help in the interim. This solution can't be given through a regular iv so they have to put in the central line. Please continue to pray for our family. CC is tired and needs to rest, but it's hard for her to leave him. I don't know what I would do in her situation. I took Caitlin up to see them this afternoon. I think it did all three of them good! She sure has missed her Papa & CC and I know they've missed her too. I'll continue to update when able!

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