Carolyn's Dad?

paul61

A while ago Carolyn's dad went in for surgery at UPMC. We had an update from her that the surgery was completed but that her dad was in ICU with blood clots in his lungs. They were giving him medication in hopes that the clots would resolve themselves. That is the last post I remember seeing from Carolyn. That was on October 7th. Carolyn posts under Casp42.

Has anyone heard from Carolyn on the current status of her dad?

Carolyn, are you out there? If so, we are still praying for your dad, and hoping for a positive update.


Best Regards,

Paul Adams
McCormick, South Carolina

DX 10/22/2009 T2N1M0 Stage IIB
12/03/2009 Ivor Lewis
2/8 through 6/14/2010 Adjuvant Chemo Cisplatin, Epirubicin, 5 FU
Two year survivor

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!

casp42

Here is the update on dad!
Hi Friends,
Sorry, I haven’t been on the boards (trying to catch up on things at home), dad was released from the hospital this week. Here are the updates! (I’m not the best writer, compared to everyone else on the boards! (I’m so jealous of them!!!!) Thanks for the wonderful prayers and I pray that my dad continues with improvements every day!
Carolyn

Wednesday, Oct. 26 EXCELLENT NEWS TODAY, ITS TRUELY A MIRACLE!
after 19 days in the hospital, Dad's is being released!
Dad's trying to get use to his new esophagus (30% of his stomach) (they took out 3/4 of his esophagus and 30% of his stomach) Dad’s being released to go to the Shadyside Family house (about 1 mile from the hospital, where home has been for Deanna, Janet, Carolyn & Gregory (Carolyn & Gregory part-time)). His bleeding time is @ a 2. WBC is holding on at 12 (still high) & (still on antibiotic for 5 more days) One great news since he will be staying for at least another week his jtube(feeding tube in his small intestine) will be mostly likely taken out next week by Dr. Luketich, along with jp (Jackson pratt) ball. He won’t be on any insulin going home, the Dr's truly believe from the stress from the 2 surgery has made his sugar increase (gone wild), along with swelling is his whole body (about 25lbs heavier). What wonderful news!
He will be on Coumadin at least another 5 months, he has his filter (green) in the groin (to prevent future clots), that should be taken out anywhere from 2-6 months, he needs to get stronger before that can happen. The dr's are very surprise how far he has come (since he had quite a few complications) Healing process begins and he’s moving a little slow! Thanks for all the PRAYERS!

Tuesday, Oct. 25 Dad bleeding time is good 2.0, he ate a soft food diet today dry-out fish, mashed potato (no gravy), plain carrots, fruit cocktail, sherbet. All the 5 tubes of blood came back negative for cultures. What a relief!
Dr. Levy came in around 7:30 am, said dad looks great! Staples are finally coming out around his stomach! Tim took out the staples and adjusted the JP ball (it keeps getting clog) WBC dropped down to 12 (yea), bleeding time is it a 2. Sugar level is at 170 (hopefully, once he is off of the high sugar feeding 18 hrs. a day, his sugar count will go down), jp ball (drainage tube will be taken out in the office, probably next week! WooHoo!

17-Monday, Oct. 24 Just got off the phone with dad, WBC are increasing 18.5, they are doing a chest x-ray and he thinks a CT. Waiting patiently for Dr. Levy to come in, sugar level 135. They did a CT scan from his neck all the way down looking for an infection, everything came be normal! Most likely a urinary tract infection from the cath.! Dr. checked all IV, jp ball and doesn’t see any type of infection. Took 5 bid tubes of blood, will be culture and trying to find infection. Alleluia! Good news!!!

16-Sunday, Oct. 23 Dr’s came in around 6 am and thinks he’s doing quite well, hopefully, should get out by Thursday, Yahoo. Sugar still a little high and his white blood cells have double from 8 to 16 (hopefully, no infection) we will see what tomorrow will bring. Dad’s looking better every day.
Just found at 4:40 pm dad has some type of infection, was found through his urinalysis. WBC is at 16 they will be putting him on Augmentin 500 mg 2x a day.

15-Saturday, Oct. 22 beautiful day in Pittsburgh, the Dr’s are thinking if everything goes well maybe discharge in a few days, grandpa walked about 7 x’s, but the hallways are like an ice cube. Started on full liquid diet, cream soup, cream of wheat, yogurt, ice cream and milk 4 ounces on the hour.

14-Friday, Oct. 21 Dad’s feeling a little better today, his blood sugar has spiked to 224 he will need insulin. They think from all the stress from surgery and from his feeding tube (lots of sugar) are making his sugar counts go crazy.

13-Thursday, Oct. 20 Dad’s out of ICU, tired, up all night, lots of noise in ICU (They have a drape in-between patients. Dad was sent up to the 7th floor, doctors came in and said everything looks good, took out the cath., and the chest tube. Still has the little ball fluid. Doctors told him he needs to rest, sleep and walk

12-Wednesday, Oct. 19, around 7:30 dad was getting 2 units’ plasma. They came up and said were taking you down. They first put in the green filter in the groin (to block future clots), time to seal off the chylethorax duct they went in exactly how when they remove the esophagus, deflate the lung, same incisions and so on surgery was about 3 hrs.. They did check out the esophagus and said that was pink and taken, which is excellent news. They said the surgery went good, heparin will be started sometime tonight, took a chest x-ray already, blood work. I guess it’s a wait game to see if it’s been repair, they put him back in ICU to monitor him closely so I'm glad for that.
Grandpa is doing well after surgery, tired but doing the best to his ability. He needs to keep the chest tube in for 48 hrs and the ball tube for a while with continuous monitoring. We pray that he will be out next week and post-op with the surgeon 2 weeks from getting released from the hospital.

11-Tuesday, Oct. 18, the jp ball tube fluid came out yellowish, milky and every 30 min. needed to be drained. They decide about 8 pm last night he needed surgery to repair the chyle. Due to the pulmonary embolism in the lungs, they gave him 2 units of plasma and surgery will be sometime tomorrow.

8, 9, 10-Saturday Oct. 15, Sunday, Oct. 16 and Monday Oct. 17, dad’s been's walking more and starting drinking a little better 2-4 ounces of clear liquid per hour. Oxygen level is staying around 96% without addtl oxygen, pulse rate is maintaining along with blood pressure. Gregory and Carolyn flew back home Sunday night, it was great having seeing them and Gregory (grandpa’s buddy, Gregory is my son 10 years old) gave grandpa some inspiration.

Unfortunately, over the weekend the ball (jp) tube kept filling up with fluid red color, they were hoping that the chyle leakage would repair itself.

7-Friday, October 14 dad hasn’t had much drainage from the chest tube or pig tail, Tim will be removing them both. Woohoo!
The BEST NEWS today, the big Dr. came in Dr. Luketich and informed us, they removed 36 lymph nodes and they were all NEGATIVE, BENIGN!!! What a great and needed surprise.
Chest tube and pigtail came out; pretty cool how they come out, this should make grandpa more comfortable.
dad is very tired the j-tube feeding isn’t agreeing with his system, he spends a lot of time in the bathroom! They decided to stop feeding and gave him a no-fat diet and see what happens.

paul61

casp42 said:

Here is the update on dad!
Hi Friends,
Sorry, I haven’t been on the boards (trying to catch up on things at home), dad was released from the hospital this week. Here are the updates! (I’m not the best writer, compared to everyone else on the boards! (I’m so jealous of them!!!!) Thanks for the wonderful prayers and I pray that my dad continues with improvements every day!
Carolyn

Wednesday, Oct. 26 EXCELLENT NEWS TODAY, ITS TRUELY A MIRACLE!
after 19 days in the hospital, Dad's is being released!
Dad's trying to get use to his new esophagus (30% of his stomach) (they took out 3/4 of his esophagus and 30% of his stomach) Dad’s being released to go to the Shadyside Family house (about 1 mile from the hospital, where home has been for Deanna, Janet, Carolyn & Gregory (Carolyn & Gregory part-time)). His bleeding time is @ a 2. WBC is holding on at 12 (still high) & (still on antibiotic for 5 more days) One great news since he will be staying for at least another week his jtube(feeding tube in his small intestine) will be mostly likely taken out next week by Dr. Luketich, along with jp (Jackson pratt) ball. He won’t be on any insulin going home, the Dr's truly believe from the stress from the 2 surgery has made his sugar increase (gone wild), along with swelling is his whole body (about 25lbs heavier). What wonderful news!
He will be on Coumadin at least another 5 months, he has his filter (green) in the groin (to prevent future clots), that should be taken out anywhere from 2-6 months, he needs to get stronger before that can happen. The dr's are very surprise how far he has come (since he had quite a few complications) Healing process begins and he’s moving a little slow! Thanks for all the PRAYERS!

Tuesday, Oct. 25 Dad bleeding time is good 2.0, he ate a soft food diet today dry-out fish, mashed potato (no gravy), plain carrots, fruit cocktail, sherbet. All the 5 tubes of blood came back negative for cultures. What a relief!
Dr. Levy came in around 7:30 am, said dad looks great! Staples are finally coming out around his stomach! Tim took out the staples and adjusted the JP ball (it keeps getting clog) WBC dropped down to 12 (yea), bleeding time is it a 2. Sugar level is at 170 (hopefully, once he is off of the high sugar feeding 18 hrs. a day, his sugar count will go down), jp ball (drainage tube will be taken out in the office, probably next week! WooHoo!

17-Monday, Oct. 24 Just got off the phone with dad, WBC are increasing 18.5, they are doing a chest x-ray and he thinks a CT. Waiting patiently for Dr. Levy to come in, sugar level 135. They did a CT scan from his neck all the way down looking for an infection, everything came be normal! Most likely a urinary tract infection from the cath.! Dr. checked all IV, jp ball and doesn’t see any type of infection. Took 5 bid tubes of blood, will be culture and trying to find infection. Alleluia! Good news!!!

16-Sunday, Oct. 23 Dr’s came in around 6 am and thinks he’s doing quite well, hopefully, should get out by Thursday, Yahoo. Sugar still a little high and his white blood cells have double from 8 to 16 (hopefully, no infection) we will see what tomorrow will bring. Dad’s looking better every day.
Just found at 4:40 pm dad has some type of infection, was found through his urinalysis. WBC is at 16 they will be putting him on Augmentin 500 mg 2x a day.

15-Saturday, Oct. 22 beautiful day in Pittsburgh, the Dr’s are thinking if everything goes well maybe discharge in a few days, grandpa walked about 7 x’s, but the hallways are like an ice cube. Started on full liquid diet, cream soup, cream of wheat, yogurt, ice cream and milk 4 ounces on the hour.

14-Friday, Oct. 21 Dad’s feeling a little better today, his blood sugar has spiked to 224 he will need insulin. They think from all the stress from surgery and from his feeding tube (lots of sugar) are making his sugar counts go crazy.

13-Thursday, Oct. 20 Dad’s out of ICU, tired, up all night, lots of noise in ICU (They have a drape in-between patients. Dad was sent up to the 7th floor, doctors came in and said everything looks good, took out the cath., and the chest tube. Still has the little ball fluid. Doctors told him he needs to rest, sleep and walk

12-Wednesday, Oct. 19, around 7:30 dad was getting 2 units’ plasma. They came up and said were taking you down. They first put in the green filter in the groin (to block future clots), time to seal off the chylethorax duct they went in exactly how when they remove the esophagus, deflate the lung, same incisions and so on surgery was about 3 hrs.. They did check out the esophagus and said that was pink and taken, which is excellent news. They said the surgery went good, heparin will be started sometime tonight, took a chest x-ray already, blood work. I guess it’s a wait game to see if it’s been repair, they put him back in ICU to monitor him closely so I'm glad for that.
Grandpa is doing well after surgery, tired but doing the best to his ability. He needs to keep the chest tube in for 48 hrs and the ball tube for a while with continuous monitoring. We pray that he will be out next week and post-op with the surgeon 2 weeks from getting released from the hospital.

11-Tuesday, Oct. 18, the jp ball tube fluid came out yellowish, milky and every 30 min. needed to be drained. They decide about 8 pm last night he needed surgery to repair the chyle. Due to the pulmonary embolism in the lungs, they gave him 2 units of plasma and surgery will be sometime tomorrow.

8, 9, 10-Saturday Oct. 15, Sunday, Oct. 16 and Monday Oct. 17, dad’s been's walking more and starting drinking a little better 2-4 ounces of clear liquid per hour. Oxygen level is staying around 96% without addtl oxygen, pulse rate is maintaining along with blood pressure. Gregory and Carolyn flew back home Sunday night, it was great having seeing them and Gregory (grandpa’s buddy, Gregory is my son 10 years old) gave grandpa some inspiration.

Unfortunately, over the weekend the ball (jp) tube kept filling up with fluid red color, they were hoping that the chyle leakage would repair itself.

7-Friday, October 14 dad hasn’t had much drainage from the chest tube or pig tail, Tim will be removing them both. Woohoo!
The BEST NEWS today, the big Dr. came in Dr. Luketich and informed us, they removed 36 lymph nodes and they were all NEGATIVE, BENIGN!!! What a great and needed surprise.
Chest tube and pigtail came out; pretty cool how they come out, this should make grandpa more comfortable.
dad is very tired the j-tube feeding isn’t agreeing with his system, he spends a lot of time in the bathroom! They decided to stop feeding and gave him a no-fat diet and see what happens.

Wonderful News
Carolyn,

Thanks for the update! It is great to hear that your dad is doing better. It sounds like he had quite a battle.

Now time for rest at home and quality time with the family. I know there must have been many sleepless nights in there for you as well. So time to get some well deserved rest for the whole family.

May the news continue to be good!

Best Regards,

Paul Adams
McCormick, South Carolina

DX 10/22/2009 T2N1M0 Stage IIB
12/03/2009 Ivor Lewis
2/8 through 6/14/2010 Adjuvant Chemo Cisplatin, Epirubicin, 5 FU
Two year survivor

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!

TerryV

casp42 said:

Here is the update on dad!
Hi Friends,
Sorry, I haven’t been on the boards (trying to catch up on things at home), dad was released from the hospital this week. Here are the updates! (I’m not the best writer, compared to everyone else on the boards! (I’m so jealous of them!!!!) Thanks for the wonderful prayers and I pray that my dad continues with improvements every day!
Carolyn

Wednesday, Oct. 26 EXCELLENT NEWS TODAY, ITS TRUELY A MIRACLE!
after 19 days in the hospital, Dad's is being released!
Dad's trying to get use to his new esophagus (30% of his stomach) (they took out 3/4 of his esophagus and 30% of his stomach) Dad’s being released to go to the Shadyside Family house (about 1 mile from the hospital, where home has been for Deanna, Janet, Carolyn & Gregory (Carolyn & Gregory part-time)). His bleeding time is @ a 2. WBC is holding on at 12 (still high) & (still on antibiotic for 5 more days) One great news since he will be staying for at least another week his jtube(feeding tube in his small intestine) will be mostly likely taken out next week by Dr. Luketich, along with jp (Jackson pratt) ball. He won’t be on any insulin going home, the Dr's truly believe from the stress from the 2 surgery has made his sugar increase (gone wild), along with swelling is his whole body (about 25lbs heavier). What wonderful news!
He will be on Coumadin at least another 5 months, he has his filter (green) in the groin (to prevent future clots), that should be taken out anywhere from 2-6 months, he needs to get stronger before that can happen. The dr's are very surprise how far he has come (since he had quite a few complications) Healing process begins and he’s moving a little slow! Thanks for all the PRAYERS!

Tuesday, Oct. 25 Dad bleeding time is good 2.0, he ate a soft food diet today dry-out fish, mashed potato (no gravy), plain carrots, fruit cocktail, sherbet. All the 5 tubes of blood came back negative for cultures. What a relief!
Dr. Levy came in around 7:30 am, said dad looks great! Staples are finally coming out around his stomach! Tim took out the staples and adjusted the JP ball (it keeps getting clog) WBC dropped down to 12 (yea), bleeding time is it a 2. Sugar level is at 170 (hopefully, once he is off of the high sugar feeding 18 hrs. a day, his sugar count will go down), jp ball (drainage tube will be taken out in the office, probably next week! WooHoo!

17-Monday, Oct. 24 Just got off the phone with dad, WBC are increasing 18.5, they are doing a chest x-ray and he thinks a CT. Waiting patiently for Dr. Levy to come in, sugar level 135. They did a CT scan from his neck all the way down looking for an infection, everything came be normal! Most likely a urinary tract infection from the cath.! Dr. checked all IV, jp ball and doesn’t see any type of infection. Took 5 bid tubes of blood, will be culture and trying to find infection. Alleluia! Good news!!!

16-Sunday, Oct. 23 Dr’s came in around 6 am and thinks he’s doing quite well, hopefully, should get out by Thursday, Yahoo. Sugar still a little high and his white blood cells have double from 8 to 16 (hopefully, no infection) we will see what tomorrow will bring. Dad’s looking better every day.
Just found at 4:40 pm dad has some type of infection, was found through his urinalysis. WBC is at 16 they will be putting him on Augmentin 500 mg 2x a day.

15-Saturday, Oct. 22 beautiful day in Pittsburgh, the Dr’s are thinking if everything goes well maybe discharge in a few days, grandpa walked about 7 x’s, but the hallways are like an ice cube. Started on full liquid diet, cream soup, cream of wheat, yogurt, ice cream and milk 4 ounces on the hour.

14-Friday, Oct. 21 Dad’s feeling a little better today, his blood sugar has spiked to 224 he will need insulin. They think from all the stress from surgery and from his feeding tube (lots of sugar) are making his sugar counts go crazy.

13-Thursday, Oct. 20 Dad’s out of ICU, tired, up all night, lots of noise in ICU (They have a drape in-between patients. Dad was sent up to the 7th floor, doctors came in and said everything looks good, took out the cath., and the chest tube. Still has the little ball fluid. Doctors told him he needs to rest, sleep and walk

12-Wednesday, Oct. 19, around 7:30 dad was getting 2 units’ plasma. They came up and said were taking you down. They first put in the green filter in the groin (to block future clots), time to seal off the chylethorax duct they went in exactly how when they remove the esophagus, deflate the lung, same incisions and so on surgery was about 3 hrs.. They did check out the esophagus and said that was pink and taken, which is excellent news. They said the surgery went good, heparin will be started sometime tonight, took a chest x-ray already, blood work. I guess it’s a wait game to see if it’s been repair, they put him back in ICU to monitor him closely so I'm glad for that.
Grandpa is doing well after surgery, tired but doing the best to his ability. He needs to keep the chest tube in for 48 hrs and the ball tube for a while with continuous monitoring. We pray that he will be out next week and post-op with the surgeon 2 weeks from getting released from the hospital.

11-Tuesday, Oct. 18, the jp ball tube fluid came out yellowish, milky and every 30 min. needed to be drained. They decide about 8 pm last night he needed surgery to repair the chyle. Due to the pulmonary embolism in the lungs, they gave him 2 units of plasma and surgery will be sometime tomorrow.

8, 9, 10-Saturday Oct. 15, Sunday, Oct. 16 and Monday Oct. 17, dad’s been's walking more and starting drinking a little better 2-4 ounces of clear liquid per hour. Oxygen level is staying around 96% without addtl oxygen, pulse rate is maintaining along with blood pressure. Gregory and Carolyn flew back home Sunday night, it was great having seeing them and Gregory (grandpa’s buddy, Gregory is my son 10 years old) gave grandpa some inspiration.

Unfortunately, over the weekend the ball (jp) tube kept filling up with fluid red color, they were hoping that the chyle leakage would repair itself.

7-Friday, October 14 dad hasn’t had much drainage from the chest tube or pig tail, Tim will be removing them both. Woohoo!
The BEST NEWS today, the big Dr. came in Dr. Luketich and informed us, they removed 36 lymph nodes and they were all NEGATIVE, BENIGN!!! What a great and needed surprise.
Chest tube and pigtail came out; pretty cool how they come out, this should make grandpa more comfortable.
dad is very tired the j-tube feeding isn’t agreeing with his system, he spends a lot of time in the bathroom! They decided to stop feeding and gave him a no-fat diet and see what happens.

Great diary!
Carolyn,

What a wonderfully detailed diary you have kept! Good to know those numbers.

Sounds like it's been quite a ride. I'm glad your dad is being released to Shadyside house. He will be much more comfortable there, I'm sure.

Take a rest yourself. Sounds like you have been bedside for much (all?) of your dad's hospitalization. You also need to stay well.

Thank you for providing the update. We pray for continued good word on your father.

Terry

chemosmoker

WOW one hell of an update!!!
THAT had to be THE single most thorough update in the history of this board!!


YAY for DAD and congratulations. Of course he had the best doctor on Earth for this surgery!

Keep us updated more when time permits.

Great news I feel better there IS hope for those who can have surgery even with all his complications!! THAT has to make others feel more hopeful today!

Eric

casp42

chemosmoker said:

WOW one hell of an update!!!
THAT had to be THE single most thorough update in the history of this board!!


YAY for DAD and congratulations. Of course he had the best doctor on Earth for this surgery!

Keep us updated more when time permits.

Great news I feel better there IS hope for those who can have surgery even with all his complications!! THAT has to make others feel more hopeful today!

Eric

Thanks everyone!
Were taken one day at a time, dad will have his appt. on Tues. with Dr. Luketich. Dad wants to get back to Chgo., I'm very curious what they will say.

Thanks for everything!

Carolyn

Luvs24

casp42 said:

Thanks everyone!
Were taken one day at a time, dad will have his appt. on Tues. with Dr. Luketich. Dad wants to get back to Chgo., I'm very curious what they will say.

Thanks for everything!

Carolyn

Good News!
Carolyn, I am impressed with the update and know how important writing things down daily helps so much.

My sister was in Fl for the first two weeks during and after the surgery. Everything was written down: heartrate, blood pressure, even reactions to meds and what it meant when he did this and that. It was such a blessing for me to step in after she went home to know the things to look for and to help him tell me what was going on.

Because everyone heals differently it is so important to track his improvements. It will also help you to see how far he has come over time. We have used those charts in the last couple of days to remind dad it was just last week that he slept most of the day and didn't go out on a walk, etc.

Praying the appts continue to go well!