We spent much of yesterday at the hospital in Soda Springs with mother and dad. When we got there dad was reasonably alert. Dr. Franson came in to do a check and gave us some update on his status, which he also explained to dad.
His heart is quite enlarged or stretched. That means it doesn’t have a very strong beat to push the blood through his circulatory system. He estimates dad’s heart is now working at between 15% and 20% of normal. As a result, he is accumulating fluid in his body because the blood stream isn’t moving it away to the kidneys for elimination. They gave him a pretty good dose of lasix (diuretics) on Thursday evening and overnight he eliminated about three liters of liquid, which was helping him to feel a bit better. During the day on Friday he eliminated another liter and a half of fluid and the process was slowing down.
Dr. Franson said it was now a duel between the heart and the kidneys. Drinking too much fluids or using too much of a diurectic puts a lot of stress on his kidneys which aren’t functioning well anyway. Otherwise, the body retains fluid which collects around the heart. One or the other will give in first and right now it’s likely the heart.
He has atrial fibrillation (meaning the top and bottom portions of the heart are not working in sync with each other and the upper chambers are not fully emptying) which, at times, gets pretty severe, further weakening the heart muscle.
On the other hand, he’s been functioning with about 25% heart efficiency and with atrial fibrillation for several years. Consequently, he could hang on for quite a while. Dr. Franson felt that “quite a while” was measured in weeks, not months. He further said that we should be prepared for him to go “at any time.”
Some people have asked if they should hurry up and get out here to see dad now. That’s a hard question to answer. I don’t think dad has much longer, but he’s pretty stubborn and that stubborness is probably built into the fiber of his body. But, his body is close to worn out. I’m hoping it won’t be a lingering, downhill slide as his quality of life isn’t great at the present time. He isn’t going to get better and even maintaining what he has is impossible.
The doctor discharged him from the hospital on Friday morning and admitted him into the Caribou Memorial Living Center and their skilled nursing facility. Medicare will pay for the first 20 days of his stay there, as long as he is “making progress”. After that he can stay another 80 days with Medicare paying a portion of the cost.
Mother is holding up pretty well, but her life is very occupied with taking as much care of dad as she can. She’s spending most of her time at the hospital / nursing home. Both her and dad welcome visitors, but there isn’t much capability of housing and feeding visitors at her house (she’s almost never there), so visitors are on their own. Church members and friends are also stopping by regularly.
And that’s the way it is on February 7th, 2009.
I don’t know about your Dad’s kidney situation, but atrial fibrillation certainly isn’t a reason for him to go. If it’s heart failure (25% heart function indicates that), that’s a different story, but stopping the afib can bring the heart function back up to a more norma level. Please don’t give up on him.
Please check out some of the atrial fibrillation forums for information or support. You’ll find a list of them at my patient & caregiver resources page: http://www.stopafib.org/resources.cfm
Please let us fellow afibbers know if we can help. He should be able to live a long, full life with afib as long as you know what to do and keep his doctors focused on moving him in that direction. Don’t let them give up on him either.
All the best,
Mellanie True Hills