I'm sorry to have to meet you all like this. My question is about
my 82 year old father. Some quick background - he had a heart valve
replacement operation around 1997 which went well. July 4, 1998 he
went into cardiac arrest on the tennis court in Florida. Because he
influenced his tennis club board to purchase AED machines 3 months
earlier, they used it on him within 2 minutes and saved his life (he
was the first person they used it on!). He did lose oxygen and went
into a coma and spent the following year relearning how to do
everything - eat, talk, walk, etc. His goal was to play tennis
again and that he did!
He's never been the same and was diagnosed with CHF maybe 2 years
ago? I forget. He's had the usual symptoms - fatigue, shortness of
breath, etc. He's been doing okay, taking lots of meds including
diuretics.
Last Tuesday, he grossly went downhill and has been in the hospital
ever since with dehydration and probable kidney issues and low
potassium, low blood pressure, and his blood sugar was very high.
He's also diabetic. His numbers on everything are better but he's
weak and doesn't eat all that much.
Kidney and heart doctors have been seeing him. I heard today that
they told my mother that a treatment might be dialisus for the
kidneys but that he is not a good candidate. They need to regulate
his meds and just keep him comfortable as one medication can be
helpful for some things and can hurt him in other ways.
If you have any suggestions or if you have knowledge in this area -
kidney problems and CHF, please write. I'm in Atlanta and my father
is in Florida with my mother who is his caretaker. We're all very
concerned about him.
Good wishes and prayers to all of you.
Lori (Atlanta) and Sam (my dad - Florida)
Posted on Jan 2, 2005, 6:07 PM from IP address 69.180.56.78