June 15: Catch Your Breath

Saturday was scary.

The morning started off slow with Karl not very interested in eating breakfast. He only wanted fruit as it was moist and easy to swallow. Karl was quite uncomfortable sitting upright in his bed so we tried to reposition him for awhile. Every movement was painful and caused him to become short of breath. This labored breathing continued throughout the day, with intermitten "panic attacks" where Karl was feeling unable to catch him breath. We worked all day, for hours and hours, calming him down and talking him through these attacks, while helping him to find a position that was not painful. Karl would doze in and out, from pure exhaustion, but could hardly sleep do to fear of not breathing. We tried to feed him a late lunch but even then, hungry and in need of nutrition, he couldn't catch his breath enough to swallow much food. He drank one boost drink, about a cup of liquid. Around 5pm the breathing got significantly worse. It was to a point that was very scary, and not something he could be talked through. Fluids and anti-anxiety medications were not helping. Karl was becoming very pale and was clearly in lots of pain. Something needed to be done.

Not having the capability to help him on the rehab floor, Karl was admitted to the Emergency Room at Memorial South Hospital, just 3 floors down. He was put on the BiPAP machine, which is a breathing mask that provides continuous positive airway pressure. It's noisy and can be a little scary to wear, but it did the trick and brought Karl's oxygen levels to where they should be. However, the mask only added to his panic attacks and fear. Nothing seemed to be going in the right direction for our guy.

After being evaluated by the ER doctor, it was decided that Karl would be transported back to the Memorial Regional Hospital ICU. This is where he could receive the best care. We made the trip back over and waited in the next ER until an ICU bed was available for Karl. He was finally settled into the Nero, Surgical & Trama ICU on the 2nd floor around midnight. Dad was in rough shape, needing to be calmed down time after time. Not being able to do anything to help was awful, but we knew the team would figure it out and fix this. They performed a sonogram on his lungs, heart and abdomen to understand more about what was going on inside.

The night's goal was to keep Dad's oxygen levels up and review the tests with the doctors first thing in the morning. Hoping for an answer soon!!!!