Days 7-17: Just Breathe

I left you all at Day 2--not an intentional move, but this liver transplant has been quite an ordeal thus far. As Dad and I talked the past several years about a possibility of having a liver transplant, we both talked about what a large surgery it was and how there are so many potential complications. As one can expect with the luck of this family, this has been the case for Dad.  It has been quite a tough road since Dad came out of the second surgery (the fascia closure) on Wednesday, April 11 and there have been plenty of complications. The great news is that we have made it past quite a few big hurdles and I can try to catch my breath a little today.

I have had to remind myself several times to just breathe these past couple of weeks. Advocating for a close loved one experience significant medical problems, that in itself is not always easy. I suppose I knew that going into this, but you all can probably relate to how difficult to really know what something will be like until it actually happens. Watching my father rely on the ventilator to breathe for most of the past 17 days...wow...just breathe indeed.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/vent/printall-index.html

The first week of the surgery (Days 3-6) was filled with stressful events and big scares. I can save those days for a different post--not to minimize what those days were like for Dad, but they all seemed to build to Day 7. The seventh day of Dad's new liver, or Sunday, April 15 was when the biggest complication was starting to [more obviously] manifest. Dad was diagnosed first with pneumonia on Day 7 and then ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) and Day 8.

http://www.homeofpoi.com/lessons_all/teach/Firebreathers-Lung-or-ARDS-11_52_198

Day 7 and Day 8 may have been the most frightening and stressful days of my life. I was told that we have to be patient with this diagnosis and we would have to wait 1-2 weeks. One to two weeks?? Every day I would watch my father attached to a machine just to breathe and get enough oxygen and I was supposed to be patient? Not knowing what was happening or why?


I think the most difficult part of watching Dad on the ventilator for the third time was when his sedating medication had to be switched after the first day of being re-intubated and he started waking-up. Imagine waking-up, being in pain (I will share the picture of his incision from the transplant later--very impressive, however), and feeling like you can't breathe with many tubes going into your throat and in your nose. Really--imagine waking up in severe pain, unable to move, feeling like you cannot breathe at all. Watching Dad wake-up and fight was absolutely horrible. 


Due to the sedating medication and the situation (the breathing tube, etc.), his hands had to be restrained to the bed. He had to be put onto a special bed that constantly rotated to try to help his lungs heal. Every time that bed turned to the side, Dad would be awakened a bit and start to gag and cough against the machine and fight the restraints. As if the situation of his complication of ARDS was not enough, watching him not be comfortable during Days 9 and 10 were the worst thing I have ever seen someone go through. Thankfully, they changed his medication towards the end of Day 10 and he finally seemed to be more comfortable, at least.


Thankfully, Dad was extubated and taken off the ventilator on Day 17--yesterday. We still have plenty to overcome, particularly given how much he went through, but we all can start breathing once again.


Just breathe.