Larry update

One of the problems with hijacking this blog for my own stuff is that the people who turn to this spot for news on my dad don’t find it here very often. Now this is also a good thing when there is nothing to tell, but this morning there is some news to tell.

Yesterday my dad began to have some trouble breathing and eventually this led to an ambulance ride to Trinity West. He was eventually diagnosed with a collapsed lung and had a chest tube inserted to get it fixed. Assuming that people with collapsed lungs get some pretty good relief from the insertion of a chest tube I’m hoping he is doing much better this morning. I have yet to talk to my Mom and will update here when I know more.

For those of you that stop by here and didn’t know why I call this blog “We Love Larry”, now you do. He had a long, arduous trip through a series of medical issues in 2009 and I use this blog to update my family and his friends about how things are going.

More from Trinity…yes, I did find that out.

Just talked to Mom and even Dad for a bit. He is at Trinity, room 772. My Mom has learned by the previous visits to get requests and information in quickly or they zip past you. She requested, and received a private room for him, so at least he should get some good rest. He sounds good and the doctor has been in to see him. It’s basically a question of curing and monitoring a case of pneumonia. My mom has been up all night and is going home for some rest in a bit. If anyone needs more than what I’m typing you can call me at 813-435-6241. I’m 6 hours ahead of you!! 7 for you Midwesterners.  : )

Frustrating.

If anyone would like to just scroll down to the post labeled "Back to the Hospital...briefly?" you can probably use that as an update for today.

Last night my dad was complaining of a headache and was quite tired....so...off to the ER we go. By "we" I mean my mom and my dad. It then becomes an exercise in waiting around for this one and that one to stamp this paper and get this paper signed.

Currently my dad is in room 156 at Trinity, Terrace Park, in Bettendorf, IA. This is apparently in closer proximity to his hematologist / oncologist, who also was the attending physician last night when they got there. He has had two units of blood to increase his hemoglobin levels, and all scans that they did were normal for anything troubling. I believe the plan is to wait to get the current blood tests back and to get him home if everything is stable. His headache had cleared up after sitting around the ER for a while. Funny...but that would have given me a headache.

I will let everyone know later how this goes. My mom feels it was probably a good thing since the weather there was going to make it rough to get into an appointment today.

A little history...

I'll probably get some of this wrong, so don't quote me for historical purposes, but 
I wanted to get everyone up to speed that might not know why this is here. My dad would probably argue that you are here simply because of the inspiring title of the blog. Sorry dad......while they may love you, they are here to check up on you, find out what Dr. is giving you the business today, or to get incriminating information to use later.

About 6 months ago my dad started to lose a little weight, lose a little energy, and generally, complain very little about it. Those of you who know him know that this is his style. After we all spent 3 months discussing his weight loss, a persistent cough, and the new lower energy Larry, my Mom convinced him and probably a few doctors that something more needed to be done. Without going into a thousand details or telling you things about a PET scan that I would just be stealing from the web, we found that there were some lymph nodes that needed a biopsy.

Following the theory that "If you know you might be sick, then you might as well act sick", my dad, in quick succession, had his hemoglobin go a little crazy, was transfused with a LOT of blood, had a mild stroke, and spent some quality time with the nurses of 7 south at Trinity Medical Center, Rock Island. Oh yeah...they managed to sneak in the biopsy while he was pretty much too sick to care what they were doing.

Now....apparently when you have a biopsy, they take the tissue, stick it under a microscope, type up a report and send it back to your doctor. This is all theoretical. I can't speak to what really happens, but while the above would seem something that could happen in a day or so....it really takes a couple of weeks and a lot of stress.  Eventually we received word that my dad had some mysterious and rare disease called Castlemans disease. I guess this is a good place to stop a post called "A little history" because that diagnosis is soon to be the same....history.