It is with a very heavy heart that I fill you in on today's events.  Last night around 3:00, Dad received more morphine.  The nurse was stationed outside his room all night again, and she was keeping a very close eye on him.  She was in giving him some morphine about 3:10, and then she came back into his room around 3:15 to check his vital signs.  Mom heard Dad gurgle, and then the nurse said that he was unresponsive.  They coded Dad, and after two rounds of CPR, they got a pulse.  He is in ICU right now, in a deep coma.  He had a cardiac arrest, but they do not know why.  All his doctors are just dumbfounded as to what happened.  The four main causes they are looking at are 1) pulmonary embolism - now 95% ruled out, 2) heart attack (his enzymes are high right now, which occurs during a heart attack, but they can also be elevated if a person has had CPR - so we don't know yet if it's a heart attack, 3) infection (his white blood count is low) and 4) his blood pressure dropped so low, combined with his oxygen count being so low, that his heart just stopped.

I know that last night they had to give him a lot of drugs to keep his confusion low - and to keep him from yanking out all his tubes.  They gave him Zyprexa first, then later he got Haldol (both anti-psychotics), and then he had Morphine, and later they gave him another dose of Morphine.  Mom asked them when they were giving him the last dose if that was too much medicine, and they told her that the doctor had ordered it.  Dad had been having trouble breathing while he was sleeping, and he kept ripping off his CPAP machine, so he didn't have it on last night.  If you take certain medicines, they can depress your respirations.  His blood pressure was already low, and he was having trouble breathing - so it stands to reason that he just stopped breathing.  I asked one of the doctors if this could be a possible cause, and he told me that, if he was a betting man, he would put his money on it.  All the other doctors are saying they have no idea, and that we may never know the cause.  The good news is, if it is the drugs, once they wear off, he has a greater chance of waking up.  Every hour that he remains in this coma, his odds of recovery decrease.

The doctor said that he did have heart muscle damage, but they don't know how much damage.  They also don't know how long he wasn't breathing before they found him, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.  We all know that lack of oxygen means brain damage; they told us that Dad already had profound brain damage and this will have added to it - so we need to be prepared for the worst.  He is completely unresponsive and on a ventilator.  The doctors said that it will be 24 hours before we know what we are facing, and there is a very good chance that he will not make it through the day.  He is in grave condition, and they are not giving us lots of hope.  They will not resuscitate him if it happens again.

Kristie and I spent an hour singing the "Larkin Top 40" hymns to him.  We forgot a lot of the words, and were hoping that he would be so indignant that he would wake up and hold his ears.  No such luck, but his two nurses that are stationed right outside his room told us it was beautiful :) .  WE knew it was terrible.  We cried through most of the songs, forgot the words to half of them, sang off-key and left out a lot - but maybe Dad can hear them, even though he isn't moving.

All of my siblings are here - Kay, Kristie and Clay.  We got here at 6AM - Kevin drove Kristie and me here  in record time.  We will be here through the night.  Only a miracle will save Dad today.  It gives me comfort to know that we are not supposed to stay here on this earth - it is just a stopping point for a short time.  Our goal is to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus.  I know Daddy has spent his life leading people to Christ, and Jesus has a mansion waiting with Dad's name on it.  I'M just not ready to lose him.  Mom is numb, but at peace, knowing God is in control, and that maybe God is ready to welcome Dad to his REAL home.
We are waiting to see what God's decision will be..............

Please keep us in your prayers today.  The ache is just almost unbearable.
Love,
Renee