The apartment has been cleaned....

My sisters and I went to dad's apartment yesterday. I wanted to rent a dumpster and just toss everything. My one sister wanted to keep some things, "for when he gets out of the hospital". As long as she keeps that stuff at her house and not mine, *whatever*. I think she's in lots of denial yet. Lots and lots of bleach later, we found things like countertops and sinks and vinyl floors! The carpet is getting cleaned on Tuesday and the painters come in next week too. Then after the bathroom gets fixed, it will look rentable again.

Dad is still on a ventilator. They tried to wean him off of it yesterday, but he only lasted about 20 minutes trying to breathe on his own, so they turned it back on. His kidneys still aren't working. He's gained 25 pounds of fluids in 5 days. His pancreas isn't working either - they're using lots of insulin to keep his blood sugar in check. His intestines aren't working either - they try to feed him with a tube into his stomach, but when they check what's in his stomach 8 hours later, most of the stuff they put in there is still just sitting there and not progressing along. The nurse yesterday noted that when she came in at 7am, she could get a *little* pain response from him, but by 11am, was getting none.

They did an EEG on Friday to see is he had any brain wave activity. He does. But what kind of activity he has is difficult to tell. It could be just basic brain stem activity. Whatever it is, *something* is still there.

He's developing more frequent PVCs. All of his blood tests are still abnormal. I'm worried we're just prolonging things by continued support. My sister is wearing rose colored glasses. He DOES have a Do Not Resuscitate order though, so if he goes into cardiac arrest, that will be it. Had he not verbally expressed those wishes before this though, I'm sure my sister wouldn't have allowed his chart to be labeled DNR. (Lesson to all - let your loved ones know your wishes!!! And even better, put them in writing!!!)

And yes, we have a third sister involved, but she's staying completely neutral. And I don't blame her one bit. If I were in her shoes, I'd do the same thing.