Wesley, Rebecca, Mahlon and Sara Beth

Making memories TWO at a time!



Friday, June 19, 2009

Follow up on my Dad (Doc)

My dad is NEVER sick and he recently had a biopsy done of his prostate (on Tuesday) due to elevated PSA levels. Thankfully nothing was found, but Wednesday he spiked a fever of 101 and couldn't shake it. On Thursday afternoon after a little work, he came home and went to bed without eating lunch. He woke up still with fever and started having convulsions. He was taken by ambulance to Wesley Medical in Hattiesburg.
On Friday he was diagnosed with Gram-Negative E-coli and pneumonia in his left lung (due to the stress of the toxins in his body.) He has been very sick. Everything in is body has been affected from his heart to his liver. Mentally he is doing extremely well considering all of the meds he is on. He knows exactly what is going on and has been barking orders! HA! For example he insisted on getting a swab for the swine flu...thankfully it was negative, but that is what he wanted.
Today my dad is doing much better. They think there is a chance he will be in a regular room by Saturday or Sunday. His pain level is now a 4 out of 10...on Thursday it was an 8. His heart rate is more stable, but they are having a hard time keeping his blood pressure up(he has been on dopamine---they are slowly taking him off of that, but each time his BP drops) He can't get in a hospital room until he is off of the Dopamine. The Urologist that did the Prostate biopsy to begin with said in 22 years he has had 2 cases that resulted in the E coli and my dads was much worse than the other guy. He is still very sick, but we are seeing improvements hourly. He did eat all of his dinner, his first solid food since Wednesday. We are looking at 4 or 5 more days in the hospital once he is in a regular room, and a 5-6 week recovery/healing process. Thankfully they do expect a full recovery. Again thank you so so much for your prayers. Please continue to keep my dad (Doug Jefcoat) in your prayers. We are so blessed to have friends and family like you praying for us.

For those of you living in Laurel...the hardest thing for my mom is going to be keeping my dad away from the clinic once he gets home. She is going to need your help or a big straight jacket to keep him at home and off of a tractor!

0 comments: