Over the edge

Well, it was too much. Too much liquid, too much heat. Combination did it in for John. Luckily not permanently, but enough to put him into the hospital in the intensive care unit. Tuesday morning was not too bad. He slept in till 10 am. Bowel movements were still frequent, but they were not pure liquid. It has never really been that way. He took his pills with water, then he drank some juice. I then did his massage with Wheat Germ oil. He tolerated the sunbathing for about 21 minutes. Even the cold shower. By the way, he has been walking in grass every time he sunbathes. But throughout the day he just seemed to be getting worse. Usually driving in the car with the air conditioning would help, but this evening it didn't. I gave him some extra heart medication to see if that would help, but it didn't, so that was when I took him in.

He was showing signs of improvement in his sugars and he was continuing to slowly increase his urine output. Mentally, it seemed he was acting more of adult in his speech and his attention span. Just listening to him speak, I could hear differences in how he presented himself. It was really exciting.

He was also continuing to have problems breathing. With the hot weather on Sunday and scorching weather Monday and Tuesday, was just too much. Tuesday night, John was in panic mode as he felt he could not breathe. His oxygen saturation was at 97%, which surprised the admitting nurse. They admitted him with Congested Heart Failure and scheduled him for a dialysis treatment. While he was waiting for that to take place John still had problems breathing even though he was on as much oxygen as possible. He was still panicking. He just couldn't calm down. They gave him morphine and adapan (don't know if I spelled or said it right). It finally started working by 1:30 am when they started his treatment. They pulled off 4 1/2 kilos.

Wednesday, John was out. He slept till about 3:30 pm. He slept through Doctors poking and prodding. He had blood taken, an echo cardiogram and another dialysis treatment which pulled another 4 kilos of liquid off. Amazingly enough his injection fraction of his heart is at almost 40%. That is really good for him having CHF for over 15 years. When he first was diagnosed, his injection fraction was 10%. But the bottom line is that all the fluid he has had took a toll on him. If it wasn't for the heat, he may have been able to pull through it. 8 1/2 Kilos equals to about 17 lbs of liquid.

The downside to him going to the hospital, is that he is eating the foods we have been trying to get away from. So we just have to deal with it and when he comes home tomorrow, we will resume. It was working in so many ways, that it is worth the risk to keep going. Now he will have a little more playing room. His kidneys are starting to get rid of some of the liquid. If we keep going it will only get better.