Grandpa is Doing Better ...

Here is an update from my dad I received this morning:

Wednesday, Mom called me at work and said that Sandy had called and said if she wanted to say good-bye to her dad that she better get down there on Thursday. So we drove down Thursday morning. When we got to the hospital, he did not look good at all. He was all hooked up with tubes and a ventilator, which was a long large tube that went down his throat all the way to his lungs. He was very weak, but he did seem to recognize Mom, and Sandy said he could understand what people were telling him. After talking to Sandy and asking some questions, we found out he had a very weakened heart, had fluid in his heart and lungs, and may not be able to breathe without the ventilator. Sandy was wondering whether to allow the doctor to remove the respirator because he had filled out papers directing that he not be kept alive by life support. Kathy came down also and Bill came over to the hospital as well. We all thought he was about to die. The hospice lady told us that if they removed the ventilator and he lasted for at least four hours then he could be moved up to the hospice. As Mom20talked to him, I witnessed one of the most tender and touching scenes of my entire life as Mom thanked him in detail for the many things he had done for her when she was growing up and over the course of her life. I still get choked up thinking about it.

At 6 pm, they made us leave so Mom and I and Kathy and Bill all went to Grandma's for dinner. Kathy then flew back to Las Vegas. We were all quite discouraged. After dinner, about 9:45 pm Mom and I went back to see him again, but to our surprise he was much more awake and alert (the difference was like night and day) and he looked all around and tried in the worst way to talk, but that was impossible because of the tubes. We tried to get him to write a message, but his hands were so swollen that he could not hold a pen. We explained to him what had happened and why he was in the hospital and why he had to have the ventilator in his throat. He could answer questions by nodding yes or no. The nurse was very nice and she explained how he had been pretty sedated earlier in the day. She also explained how without the ventilator he may not be able to breathe. We left quite encouraged but confused about how he could breathe.

Friday we went by the hospital before leaving for home. He had just been given more sedation so that they could do a procedure on him. When we finally got to see him, he was asleep and very much unaware of what was going on around him. I was able to give him a priesthood blessing, we said good-bye and then we left for Las Vegas. We did not really hear much mor e until later on Friday when Mom talked to Sandy and she said the doctor was surprised but he was improving remarkably. On Saturday, they took out the ventilator and he was breathing on his own. Today we heard that he is still too weak to talk, but that he is still being cared for by the doctors and nurses and has not yet been transferred to the hospice. For now, we are cautiously optimistic that he will continue to improve and we are hoping that he can talk soon.

--Leslie