My New Year Off To A Bad Start
Of late my dad hasn't been feeling well. He has had swelling in his ankles and lower legs for some time but felt okay otherwise. I kept urging him to go to a doctor but he kept refusing to go with the mindset that he will correct it "naturally".Over the past couple of weeks things started getting worst and worst. The swelling increased and he started feeling short of breath on mild exertion. I finally convinced him he must see a doctor. This afternoon I took him to my doctor and after a couple minutes in the exam room the doctor called me in and said he must go to the emergency room because his heart is failing. Got him to the ER and they admitted him at once. Turns out he has congestive heart failure. The pumped him full of diuretics to start getting the fluid from his body and put him on oxygen. They are running a battery of tests to try and figure out why the heart failure is occuring (i.e.a silent heart attack or some other cause). The good news is his EKG doesn't look too bad except for some atrial fibrillation. His blood pressure wasn't bad either. The other good news is that once they get rid of the excess fluid from his legs and lungs he will be stable.Let's just say he got to the doctors in the nick of time.They expect he'll be in the hospital for another 4-5 days (until he is stable) and then he will be on a regular regimen of medications, i.e.blood pressure and diuretics and he will have to make regular visits to a cardiologist. He's 84 years old and has never been in a hospital before.I am just hoping for the best. My Mom is spending the night with him at the hospital. Tomorrow and the next few days I'll likely be spending a lot of time at the hospital. I'm hoping the rest of the year things will take a turn for the better.
