Now in ICU

I feel far too tired at the moment to even go into the problems we've been having with lack of communication, lack of medical care and the hospital acting against suggested clinical guidelines with respect to my father in law's care. When Andy went to the hospital last night he made it clear that we knew they were breaking guidelines and that we were looking for answers as to why. When Andy came home last night we were all concerned that the ward staff hadn't noticed that his dad had deteriorated and didn't really seem to be doing much. We were all frustrated and angry at the way he was being treated. The original plan was for Andy and I to meet the doctors on Friday afternoon and find out what was going on. Anyway, his dad had other ideas, as we were about to find out.

We got THE phone call at 10am this morning - the one where you're told to dash to the hospital. Not good news this morning as Andy's dad had deteriorated a lot overnight and was now unresponsive. The hospital where he was at were transferring him to a hospital which had better facilities so we were told to go straight to the new hospital.

When we got there he doctor spoke to us as soon as our feet landed on the ward. We explained our issues with the previous hospital and asked him to be honest...good or bad news we just wanted answers. And then we pulled out the "nurse card". Normally I don't use it because I remember how intimidating it used to be when I was looking after doctors and nurses. But what I was really meaning was "don't pull the wool over our eyes or treat us like idiots because I understand every word you're saying".

After that things seemed to happen really quickly, he got the brain scan that he needed (which confirmed a brain infarct - stroke) and the doctors quickly got a plan together.  I asked them to add chest physio to his treatment plan (and oh boy did he sound BETTER after it!) and asked them to start him on IV fluids because he's not drunk in well over 24 hours. Sure enough they sorted it out, much to our relief.

He was later transferred to ICU - although I think he was actually looking a little better by that point. However he is still very, very sick and we're not sure which way things are going to go. The general consensus at this point is that he had a stroke and aspirated, giving him aspiration pneumonia and septicaemia. He's got a long way to go and it breaks my heart to see this active, independent man lying so helpless in ICU.

So, tonight I'll be praying for God to continue to guide the doctors towards the right treatment. I have confidence that the doctors are doing everything they can (no thanks to the previous hospital) and so now we wait.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers x