In the morning my dad is having another systoscope of the bladder to determine what if anything they can do for him.  Really because of the radiation he has had in the past there is not much that can be done for the fistula, but they may be able to tell us something about the bleeding.  That's all we had wanted to know all this time.  I'm glad we are getting another opinion.  They can try things, but really in reality there is very little to do.  This is probably the most difficult situation to be in because again, we do not know anything and even with this test it's not going to probably give us anymore answers than what really pretty much already know.  I hate to continue to see him suffering like this.  He has been through so much in the past 5 years and even more in the past 2.  It's like how much can one person take?  He's a miracle man for making it through all that he has and my hero.  I want him to continue to fight, but sometimes on the other hand it hurts so much to see him not be hisself and in a place that is uncomfortable.  All I can do is keep the faith and know that this is in God's hands.

 

My dad is doing somewhat better today, they are listing him as stable.  Still remains in ICU.  Today I got confirmation of what I suspected.  We were advised that the blood work upon leaving the other hospital's ER showed my dad's white blood count extremely elevated from just Friday.  He had just had his count checked at the same hospital the day before.  They have his complete history on the computer network.  This along with the severe chills all signs at one thing.  Infection or in my dad's case septic shock.  Not only that, but his blood pressure was out of whack.  They never once got an accurate reading that night for the temp as the same thing kept being told to us.  He just had some ice.  Did they never once think to do it under the arm or get one that took it from the ear.  They dismissed him with his levels like this.   
Anyhow JCO has been in contact with the reported hospital.  They called to let me know they got the report today.  They seemed concerned that I felt the need to report them and explained I didn't take this lightly.  This is a very serious matter.  JCO has replied within two days.  In order for JCO to get involved within two days that would mean they felt it was something critical enough to be pushed quickly.  I am so disappointed with the care he got at the other hospital.  They are the reason he is now laying in ICU.  Had they administered antibiotics that night he could have likely been without needing the dialysis and other things we are now having to do to save him.  I'm so angry.
I pray that these ER doctors don't hurt other people.  I can only imagine that if my mom and I didn't have some knowledge of medical related things he would have been dead.  This is exactly why people die, they get sent home being told they are fine and WE trust they are doing a job.  The labs being over looked is just inexcusable.

This morning my mom called the hospital to get an update about my dad's condition.  The nurse she spoke with said he's doing good.  He's been filling up his cath bag about 1oz per hour.  My mom said, oh you must have the wrong patient.  See it wasn't the same nurse we talked with before we left and she said no, it is the correct patient.  Your other nurse left early because she was feeling ill.  My mom was just shocked.  In a matter of just a few hours the dialysis had started to help him out and is moving things again.  Getting the kidney's going.  We got to the hospital and he is looking better.  My mom and I have made the choice that we are firing his other hospital completely, most of his care was being given there and that is why we went to that ER.  I cannot forsee going back to that hospital.  He had a few doctors he was following up with, but they are not being aggressive enough.  Only time will tell what is going to happen next.  He's health is up and down.  Just Friday he was swimming, his labs wonderful.  It's amazing how his health will change in the drop of a hat.  That's the sad reality of having cancer.  
I got a call at the hospital with the results of my ultrasound for my legs.  They are not showing any signs of a DTV or the blood clot!  The treatment with blood thinner has resolved the clot complelely!  I'm so thrilled.  My pcp told me to stop all blood thinner immediately.  I will however have to be tested in 4 weeks for thrombophilia.  If you've never heard of this, this is a good PDF about it.   Click here
She got part of my labs back and everything is perfect.  3+ years post-op and still maintaining good labs.

Also I'm sorry to announce I have decided that due to the health of my father I won't be coming out to the San Antonio OH event.  I don't want to be far away or access only via airplane if I needed to get to my family.  It's still so unstable on what the next few weeks will bring.  I'm still looking forward to Atlanta on September 8th.

Those that have been following my ordeal with my dad just wanted to give an update.  They had determined by this morning that he must have dialysis.  They started it today.  It seemed to help increase his breathing, his oxygen levels did increase and it improved his blood pressure.  He is far from being out of the woods and we just don't know.  It's been back and forth now for so many times.  We feel he won't make it and then he comes out of it.  He's a miracle man.  I called the complaint department to report what happened at the other hospital.  They took my information and passed it on to the patient rep who handles these type of complaints.  The incident has been handed over to the ER head person.  They told me it will take a little time to get all the information gathered and call me back.  I mentioned neglect, and the fact he was then admitted at another hospital within 12 hours for septic shock.  This is some serious stuff.  I let them know that my father is now on his death bed basically at another hospital and they overdosed him.  The patient rep was extremely concerned.  I also got a reply back today from J Co  (Joint Commission) about my complaint.  They are right on top of it.  They see some seriousness in needing to reply quickly and immediately.  I was happy with hearing back so quickly.  So far all the professionals I have come in contact with I've asked if they would ever directly tell a patient to sign out AMA.  Each one have both been shocked and just in disbelief that ANYONE would tell a patient such a thing.  I admit I'm still in shock myself.  I just hope they really listen to the complaint and do really research the issue at hand.  I don't want more people being neglected.  That is my main concern.
I'll update as I know more.  My dad is still critical.  Thanks for all the messages, emails, phone calls and prayers.  They truly mean so much to me.

Thank goodness we got to the other hospital when we did.  My dad is in septic shock, renal failure, bleeding still from the bladder, unable to got to the bathroom, and to top it all off... He was overdosed on narcotics, they had to give him narcan to respond to them.  Last night we felt they gave him too much, he got 8 of morphine and 10 of oxy  It was the most awful sight I have seen.  His blood pressure was 63/33 when he arrived, the temp was 104!  The other hospital however said...oh there is nothing wrong.  Within 15 minutes they knew what was wrong, had labs running and got it going.  The other place, well they didn't do any good evaluation and when someone is shaking so bad from chills....ummm what does that tell you?? Hello??   I have already filed a complaint against the other hospital.  I sent it to the Joint Comission as they are part of that.  I'm going to be calling the Admin of the hospital tomorrow.  I'm not worried about money or suing, etc.  It's the principal of the care given.  These people could kill people!   I explained what happened in detail and asked them to call me.  They could likely have killed my dad.  He is still far from being out of the woods at this point and heaven forbid he doesn't make it.

I've got to get some sleep, long day tomorrow.  I'll be thankfully everday  they took on my dad's case.  He was literally on his death bed.  I can only hope that he can pull out of this now.  Thank you for all the prayers and support.  It's been a long 5 years of ups and downs with my dad.  I just pray God gives him more time with us.  He's been through so much.

My mom called this morning, my dad is not able to use the bathroom.  We are going to a different hospital.  I hope they can find the source of the bleeding and try to get this under control.  I just want to know that he is in good hands.  Those doctors last night had ZERO compassion or bed side manner.  I'm still fuming from the whole experience.

Will update later.

What a day today has been, on my earlier message I was running out the door to the hospital.  By the time I reached the hospital my dad was in so much pain.  They waited almost 3 hours!!  3 hours!!  to give him any pain meds.  Needless to say I was ticked.  I won't go into what hospital this was, but I am so angry with them.  They treated my father awful.  They wanted to do another urine cath to help with the blood clots in his urine.  My dad didn't want to do this, because previously he was unable to go even with it in.  The clots were clogging the tubing and even with flushing it out, the clots would not come out.  He took it out.  So today they again wanted to do this.  He just has pure blood coming out bright red, this is not normal.  Before when he was bleeding you could see the urine mixed.  This did not have that look at all.  So after they call in some doctors they said, well if you don't want to do the cath then you need to sign out of this hospital AMA.  I'm like HUH??  I've never heard a professional advise someone to go ahead and sign out AMA.  They said.... well there is nothing we can do.  See the problem is they are only wanting to send him home with the cath, they have no plans to find out the source of the bleeding.  Personally I feel that the tumor is back in the bladder, the surgeon said this would likely happen as it does in most bladder cancer patients.  However the surgeon now doesn't want to do anything further, they want to just keep him "comfortable".  Ummm what the heck does comfortable mean other than we give up??  I am mad!!  I feel like they have given up on him because he's 65, has had cancer, overweight and I just feel that they believe he won't make it so they are giving up.  He has beat the odds so many times.  He's survived 4 surgeries, each time they said he might not make it.  He survived many rounds of chemo!  He's had the most chemo sessions they have given at that clinic!  I finally just told my mom, fine let's get him out of here.  I wanted to go to another hospital  They gave him some pain meds, got an ambulance to bring him home.  He didn't sign out AMA though.   He is now home and I feel we will be going back to the hospital by tomorrow, as he doesn't look good.  I know in my heart that something bad is going on.  I want a 2nd opinion and the longer we wait the worse it may become.    We will be going to another hospital.  I am totally done with the other one. 

Please keep him in your continued prayers.  I am so worried and I'm sick of not having answers.

Ps.  Thanks for all the messages of support about the MTV show.  Anyone who has emailed me I will be getting back when things settle down.  

 

I'm running out the door now.  My mom just called and they have called an ambulance for my dad.  He's bleeding again from the bladder.  I don't know anymore details, but it must be bad for them to call the ambulance.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  Will update later.

The reservations have been made.  

We are having a pre-event meet & greet a Joe's Crab Shack in Duluth.  It is around 10 miles from the hotel the event is being held.  If you cannot make the OH event, come join us for dinner.  This is a non-OH sponsored gathering.  

Upon arriving let them know this is a reserved party under the name either Amy Williams or ObesityHelp.

Come join us Friday September 7th @ 7pm- until

Location:
Joe's Crab Shack Duluth
1590 Pleasant Hill Road
Duluth, Ga. 30096
770-381-6333

Directions:
http://www.joescrabshack.com/locations.php?state=GA&city=Duluth&zipCode

You can also view the menu on the site.
Please keep in mind because this is a group gratuity is added to each bill.  


We will be doing as the last time we went to this location and have the front patio area reserved just for our group.  If you feel more comfortable being inside you are welcome to sit inside.  Incase it does rain part of the patio is covered and we could go inside as needed.  It can hold around 60 people, so come join us!

If you are interesting in coming to the Meet & Greet please email me or PM me your name and how many, as I need a head count.

There is still limited seats available for the Atlanta event, don't delay in registering.
http://www.obesityhelp.com/events/uzone,events/action,event_details/?pkid=604&key=d8abc369afb37726e40dd64aa1f754ee

Just some food for thought.

I was pondering about something lately.  Sometimes I have seen others who are obese or even formly obese who pass judgement on those who are obese.  I'm wondering a few things.  Has the media played into how we judge peoples appearances?  Are we expected to reach a certain size in order to be worth something?   How can this happen even with people who have suffered from morbidly obesity?  How can anyone forget what it was like?  Maybe they were like this before losing the weight loss.  I don't know....

A good example was when I was in high school.  I was picked on daily by this one boy.  He would never let up.  What surprised me was the very issue he was picking on me about, my weight, he had his own weight problem.  One day when he was going hot and heavy I decided enough was enough.  I told him look, you need to go look in the mirror before you start on me. This has always puzzled me.  Then I realized later in life that he probably had an issue with his own self worth and likely took out his anger on me.  I may never know why he did what he did.  

It should not matter what we look like.  I never had this surgery to be a certain size or expect to have the perfect body.  I know that is unrealistic.  

What are your thoughts?