As many of you may know by now, my Father's heart failed in the morning of June 8th. He was transported to the hospital were they tried to resuscitate him with no success. It's been a rough 48 hours for me and my family. I've laughed and cried while thinking about him. Not only was he a great father to me, he was my best friend. I loved him very much and will continue to do so. For this upcoming father's day, I plan on posting a tribute to him. If anyone is interested, below is a link to my father's obituary. I want to thank everyone for their support these last few months.
Ronald Keith Cochran - April 20, 1937-June 8, 2007
Just a quick update...
The big news is that my Dad has been released from OSU-James earlier this week. He's been transfered to a local nursing home for the rest of his physical therapy (which in theory should last around three weeks). Knock on wood...he hasn't had a fever since he's left the hospital. His biggest issue right now is keeping his
CPAP (breathing machine) mask on at night. He does pretty good during
the day with the nasal tubes for his oxygen. He knows where he is and
why and realizes he has some tough physical therapy ahead of him in order
to come home soon. Overall though, he's doing well. Once he's recovered, there is talks to start his treatment, but as an outpatient. I have no idea what they are considering to use at the moment. Hopefully his condition will continue to improve and will be able to come home. All of us miss him and wish for his rapid return. As always...Thanks.
Sorry it's been a while since I've posted an update. This week has been a good one. They moved my Dad out of ICU Tuesday (the 28th) and into a room in James. They've also removed the drainage tube from his right lung yesterday! So far he's been doing great. His vital signs remain stable, but he continues to be on a minimum of oxygen using a nasal tube. The white blood cell count has been on the high side, however, the Hematologist told us not to worry about it right now. They're mainly concerned in getting his infection under control. I've seen him twice since he's been out of ICU and he looks better each time. He's been eating solid food (usually attacking the desserts first) and has started his physical therapy. Dad didn't realize how hard it would be to move from his bed to a chair. I had to remind him that he been in a bed for three weeks. They have a TV and DVD player in his room. I've moved up a couple of movies in my Netflix queue that he's been wanting to see. He's looking forward to that. While we're not out of the woods yet, he's made tremendous improvements this week. Hopefully he will keep it up! Thanks again to all for your calls, e-mails, and comments.
]]>Things were looking up for my Dad. He was moved out of ICU yesterday only to be moved back to ICU this morning. I don't have much information right now. All I know is that he was not responsive early this morning and his oxygen dropped. They are putting the ventilator back in to help with his breathing. I'll post an update when more information becomes available.
]]>Mom and I went and saw my Dad last night. He was more conscious and alert than before. As stated in the last post, they were able to remove the tube from his throat Saturday morning and he's now breathing on his own. He's still has an occasional low fever, but seems to be improving. We were able to talk to him for a little bit and we watched him go through his mouth exercises. It was fun to watch him stick his tongue out and smile as directed by the therapist. Dad is making great progress and might be able to move out of ICU soon. Again, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
]]>The major event of the day was that my Dad was able to breathe on his own for two hours!
Yes...I'm trying to catch up what's been going on this week, so here we go...