Saturday, November 21st I received a call from my dad's girlfriend, Elaine Koff, that dad had a stroke. David, my mom Karen and I were in Chicago spending time with family. Elaine tried some wholistic remedies for the stroke but I had David call 911 and had dad taken to the hospital. The ambulance took him to Tri City Medical Center in Oceanside. He had an aneurysm on his right side of his brain, making the whole left side of his body paralyzed. He also has multipe infections on this left leg (about 5 open wounds), infection in his lungs and bladder, which are all pre-existing conditions that he wasn't taking care of with antibiotics. He has pneumonia and continues to cough up blood and is on a respirator. Because he is on a respirator, he is sedated so he does not feel any pain.
We do not know how bad his stroke is until we take him off the respirator. And we can't take him off the respirator until his pneumonia goes away. Dad has been responding to me by squeezing my hand and moving his toes on his right side when asked to.... WHICH IS REALLY GOOD. I visit him as much as I can and have been playing him Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin music. I've also been reading to him, which he really enjoys. My mom has also been SO AMAZING and visiting him with me and reading to him when I'm not there. Elaine also visits him and asks the nurses for updates and rubs his foot. So dad is receiving a lot of love and healing vibes.
The first hurtle is to see if he can breath on his own without a respirator. They started him on 100% with the respirator but now he is pretty much breathing on his own and the respirator is assisting him 30%.
After he is off the respirator, then we can see how bad the stroke is and perhaps how his quality of life will be. I know that if he pulls through I will be putting him in a nursing home up by me in Long Beach. The nurses say that he is very sick and we just have to take it day by day and let him rest. His heart is pumping a little slow but his blood circulation is really good.
The doctors call me on a daily basis and I will try to update the blog as much as possible. Dad is in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) so they do not allow any plants, flowers or living things. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
Love,
Megan
Daddy's little girl!
