Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Papa Kay!

I'm always grateful for my amazing father, but this Father's Day is particularly tender.  A week ago Papa Kay was in critical care on a ventilator.  In fact, the doctor told my Mom that out of his twenty patients in the ICU, Dad was the one he was most worried about.  We were all scared that this Father's Day he might not be with us.

You may recall that my Dad was hospitalized for pneumonia at the beginning of May and has been on oxygen since.  Unfortunately the pneumonia never resolved.  It gradually got worse until he developed ARDS (acute respiratory failure) and went into septic shock (an infection that spreads to the blood stream.)  When he and my Mom arrived at the emergency room, his oxygen was in the 50s.  His blood pressure plummeted to 50/30.  If you don't know much about medicine, I'll just say that this is not good. 

Callie, Talia, and I drove through the night last Sunday so that we could be by his side.   Seeing my father paralyzed, sedated, and intubated brought back so many memories from December 2022.  Papa Kay and Annika even had the same "reminder" wrist restraints.  It made me so sad to see my fiercely-independent father restrained, even though I knew it was for his own protection. 

On Tuesday my Dad's breathing began to sync with the ventilator, so they were able to stop the paralytic and step back the sedation.  My Dad wanted to communicate SO badly, but it's nearly impossible with your hands tied and a breathing tube blocking your vocal cords.  Communication devolved into a rather pathetic game of twenty questions, but we did our best.  Fortunately Papa Kay doesn't remember much about our sorry attempts at decoding his charades.

By Wednesday my Dad became coherent enough to use a white board.  Even in his delirious state, he wrote me this beautiful message: "I'm OK" with a heart.  These shaky strokes are such a tender representation of his generous soul, thinking of others even when struggling himself.

His next messages are hilarious.  He beckoned his nurse Melina over and wrote two messages for her.  The first, ABC, was to tell her what news station he wanted to watch.  Can you decipher his next note?  Wordle.  Yup, Papa Kay still cared about keeping his Wordle streak.  You'll be glad to know that we broke into his phone and solved the Wordle for him while he was sedated.  After all, he'd just reached 800 days!  We didn't cheat, but had we come close to losing, we absolutely would have.  Priorities.

It was a happy moment when Papa Kay was strong enough to hold his own phone and work on Wordle by himself again.

Shortly before noon on Wednesday we received the delightful news that Papa Kay would be extubated.  While still a bit scary, taking the tube out isn't nearly as frightening as putting the tube in.  I wept as I saw his amazing smile and heard his raspy voice thanking our amazing nurses.  His next request? His comb.  So perfectly Papa Kay!

This seemed like the right time to give Papa Kay his "Keep Smiling" ring.  Eli has one that matches.

Remarkably strong, Papa Kay was out of bed and sitting in a recliner by Thursday.  Around ten pm they moved him out of the ICU and onto the main floor of the hospital.

By Friday my Dad was walking the halls with PT.  I sent the family a text to celebrate his stroll, but Adam suggested that this walk was more of a celebratory strut.

By Friday afternoon we were able to secure a private room with a window for Papa Kay, a huge step up from the dreary shared room where he was originally placed.  While still needing oxygen, he was breathing well and his kidneys seemed to be recovering from the hit they took due to low blood pressure and medications.

Callie, Talia, and I would have liked to stay, but we left home in such a rush that we needed to get back and put our houses back in order.  We drove all day Saturday to be back with our own husbands by Father's Day.

To the men in our lives, Jason and Adam, thank you  for running everything while we were gone.  Your support during this critical time meant so much!  And Papa Kay, thank you for fighting so hard when your lungs were so terribly sick.  I've always cherished our time together, but time seems even more special now.  I'm grateful that we can still share your goofy jokes, bizarre memes, and thoughtful insights about life.  For a "net-giver," it must be difficult to be stuck in the hospital on the receiving end, but just sharing your smile means so much to me and others.  You are a remarkable husband, Dad, and Grandpa.  We love you!  Happy Father's Day!