Prologue

Journal Entry

Date: March 26, 2013 5:25 PM

Topic: Prologue

My name is Rob.  Events of late have prompted me to begin keeping a journal so I can track my thoughts as well as have a timeline of what is and has been happening.  Everyone has good times and bad times but since August of 2012 that normal ebb and flow for our family has moved and stayed towards the bad. 

This journal is about my Dad.  However another variable in this ebb and flow has been my wife Jeannie’s father Danilo.  He had surgery to remove cancer from his intestines in November.  Since then he has been unable to walk or care for himself.  He has also been in and out of the hospital and back and forth to different doctors.  Another recent event has been Jeannie’s grandmother dying this week.  Her mother had to make a rushed trip up to NY for the funeral on 3/25.  Jeannie is staying with her dad to look after him while her mom is gone.

I guess it had been building for a while but it seems to have started to turn bad with my Dad Jerman (Bud).  Dad is an 86 year old WWII Navy vet.  For an octogenarian he is normally very active and was in reasonably good health for his age.  His doctors at the VA advised us last year that he needed a stent in his right carotid artery.  Tests were showing the artery was 80% to 90% blocked and we were told that it would lead to an ever increasing risk of stroke if it wasn’t dealt with.  The surgery is typically done on an out patient basis and the closest VA hospital to us is in Tampa, about 100 miles away.

So, in August 2012 with the surgery scheduled we drove to Tampa. The VA had Dad come in the day before the surgery and ran a series of pre-op tests on him.  The VA staff had concerns over Dad’s Atrial Fibrillation and postponed the stent surgery. They scheduled him to see a cardiologist in Orlando for further tests.

After seeing the cardiologist, Dad was scheduled to have an Angiogram to check his heart.  In November we took him back to Tampa for the procedure.  The results of that test were good and he was rescheduled for the stent surgery.

In December we once again returned to the Tampa VA and this time the stent surgery was performed.  In recovery Dad’s heart rate was very low and instead of releasing him that night they kept him overnight for observation.

About three days after we got Dad home from the surgery his heart rate became very erratic and he became dizzy and confused.  Since the VA is over 100 miles away he was rushed to one of the local hospitals, Dr. P. Phillips Hospital (formerly Sand Lake).

Now here is where I start to get fuzzy and the timeline begins to blur… It is now 3 months later and since December Dad has been in and out of the local hospital so many times I’ve honestly lost track of exactly when, and how many times he had to go to the local ER.  The myriad episodes of his heart beating erratically combined with seemingly never ending trips back and forth to the local VA clinic or the private Doctors for consultations and tests has made my head swim.  I want to mention here that the VA refuses to pay the private Doctors and hospital charges saying it isn’t covered.  Medicare is going to pickup most of the bills but the remaining amounts are beginning to add up.

There is one thing I remember clearly and it is why I started this journal.  During his last hospital stay from earlier this month, the doctors became concerned with dark spots on the x-Rays of his chest.  They performed a biopsy of his right lung before releasing him this time.  We got the results today…