T
tag716
I have a question about my dad. He is 79, had triple bypass and a mitral valve replacement on June 6 (previous quadruple bypass in 1987), and is having problems. He did have a problem with O2 saturation that seems to be under control now and did go into ventricular fibrillation once. He was back on the ventilator for awhile because of respiratory distress/failure. However, the big problem now is that he can't keep any food down, not even pureed. Liquids have to be thickened because he is aspirating them. They had a feeding tube in and then took it out thinking he was better. He's not. If anything, he's worse. He is extremely weak. They are going to start IV feeding today (there was some medical reason they didn't want to do it but I'm not sure what it is) and still try to feed him small amounts and hope he keeps it down. The nurse told me they are bringing the neurologist back in for another consult because my dad can't seem to hold his head up and that she thinks the GI doc will order an x-ray today to look for obstruction, ileus, etc. It's about time! His potassium is slightly low today (3.3, normal range starts at 3.5) but basically electrolytes are fine. He had an irregular heart beat yesterday and they added digoxin. Earlier in the week they thought he could leave and go to rehab (nursing care was lacking earlier in week), but now it's really touch and go whether he can come back from this.
I have a medical background so I was looking up some of his drugs to see if they could cause the GI problems (Cardizem, digoxin must be used cautiously together). The morphine he had postsurgically may have added to this too. Is anyone familiar with this complication? Do you know anyone who had it and got better? My dad's age is against him. And he's so weak. Any ideas on what we should ask about or what can be done? I did ask yesterday about giving him something to help heal the esophagus from all the tubes (one theory is that this is all due to esophageal irritation from tubes, ventilator, vomiting, etc.). I can't understand why they didn't think of it before. They had him on Prilosec but stopped because of his low platelets. But platelets are up now. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas, please post or e-mail me. And please pray for my dad.
Thanks.
Traci
I have a medical background so I was looking up some of his drugs to see if they could cause the GI problems (Cardizem, digoxin must be used cautiously together). The morphine he had postsurgically may have added to this too. Is anyone familiar with this complication? Do you know anyone who had it and got better? My dad's age is against him. And he's so weak. Any ideas on what we should ask about or what can be done? I did ask yesterday about giving him something to help heal the esophagus from all the tubes (one theory is that this is all due to esophageal irritation from tubes, ventilator, vomiting, etc.). I can't understand why they didn't think of it before. They had him on Prilosec but stopped because of his low platelets. But platelets are up now. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas, please post or e-mail me. And please pray for my dad.
Thanks.
Traci