Raf and I were gearing up for what was promising to be an interesting New Year’s Eve on Cay Caulker, we had met a bunch of cool people on the island, and were trying to figure out where we’d be for midnight. Then probably the worst thing that can happen, happened. On the day before NYE, my sister emailed me from LA to tell me that my dad had gone critical during his stay at a local hospital and things didn’t look good.
He had flown out to LA before Xmas to be with my sister Judy and his grandkids. He was not doing very well at all when he got there, and his condition turned worse. He ended up getting admitted on Xmas day.
Judy was keeping me apprised of his condition, and he was steadily improving, until Dec 30th, when his vitals took a nosedive. He had to be transferred to ICU, and be put on a respirator. So when I got the call, I had no choice but to book a flight back to LA the next day. So on New Year’s eve, I was flying from Belize City to LA. We went straight to the hospital from the airport. It was hard to see him sedated, with all the tubes and wires coming out of him. One of the doctors had already told Judy that he was “terminal”, but some of the nurses and other doctors thought otherwise.
So it’s been several days now, and his condition has improved on several fronts, but he still has an elusive infection that the doctors can’t pinpoint. And he still can’t breathe on his own.
So things are getting down to the nitty gritty, where perhaps some call may need to be made as to how long to keep him on the respirator. We’re trying to give the doctors time to find the infection. That’s the biggest issue. It may be in the heart, and if it is, there’s really not much the doctors can do.
It’s been a tough week.