One month ago I took my Father to his family physician complaining of back pain. The Dr. poked around on his back but did not find any source of the pain. He then sent my dad for blood work. This came back with an elevated PSA . The Dr. said this was the cause of the back pain and recommended Prostrate surgery. After a visit to a urologist it was decided to go ahead with the surgery.
On Tuesday, April 17th, my dad had prostrate surgery. He went home the next day. On Thursday he received word that it was not cancer. Friday morning my mother called and said something was wrong with my dad to come right away. Upon arrival I found my dad semiconscious. I called the ambulance. The local EMTs arrived in minutes. They put dad on oxygen and tried to keep him calm until the ambulance arrived. By this time I had contacted all the family members and we went to the hospital. In the emergency room we were informed that dad had a ruptured aneurysm. The Dr. asked if we knew that he had an aneurysm. No we did not.
We were told that they did not expect dad to make it but they were taking him to emergency surgery. He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hrs. He made it through the surgery. On Saturday he woke up enough to nod in answer to questions. I told him he would get well, he shook his head no. I said don't you want to get well, he said yes. I said you will, he said no.
On Saturday night his blood pressure dropped and his kidneys failed. Sunday he was unresponsive. Same on Monday. They started dialysis on Monday. They tried again on Tuesday, but his blood pressure dropped too low to continue. They had to keep increasing the medicines to raise the pressure. During the night he began to have seizures. My sister stayed with him that night.
My sister called me at 6:00 am and told me to bring mom and call the rest of the family. The Dr. said it was time to turn off the life support. Daddy's greatest fear was dying alone. He was not alone. My mother, two brothers, two sisters, and my self, and a sister-in-law were present at the end. Four grandchildren and three sons-in-law got to say goodbye immediatly before.
Daddy is gone and I miss him with all my heart. I am angry that the first Dr. didn't find this. I feel like my dad would be here now if the Dr. had taken him more serious about the back pain. The surgeon told us that this had developed over time . He and the E.R. Dr both seemed shocked that we didn't know about this. My dad would want us to pursue this so we will. maybe this will help us to deal with the pain.
See you again dad.
Love always, Ellen