Saturday, May 22, 2:00PM
Greetings everyone,
Here is the latest on my dad:
He was able to leave the hospital on Friday afternoon. It is exciting to know that he is home. He has been able to shower and make his way upstairs.
Please continue to pray for his healing and that he would recover better than before.
God is good, all the time!
Brian
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday Update
Thursday 3:00PM, May 20th, 2010
Greetings friends and family,
I wanted to provide you with the Thursday update on my dad. He continues to progress in his recovery and is in better spirits each and every day. You can tell that he is improving because the nature of the jokes keep improving.
During my visit this afternoon, one of the nurses was taking his temperature. She was commenting that the digital thermometer was not reading properly and that she might have to try another way. He mentioned that you could always take it the way you take it with a baby (up the backside) and she immediately said I can do that, to which he replied, very quickly I might add, "that won't be necessary". My brother and I were hoping she was going to follow through with it, but no such luck.
He has been walking much more today than yesterday and with considerably less pain. Please continue to pray for physical stamina and less pain when walking or getting out of a chair.
Also, they want him to really work on his breathing by taking larger less shallow breaths. Please pray for this part of the healing as well. He needs to get a 1000 on his breathing apparatus in order to be discharged and he is hitting the 750's pretty consistently right now.
I am including a picture that I took right before I left where he is giving everyone the thumbs up.
Thanks,
Brian
Notice the pillow on his lap that he has to hug in order to keep his chest from too much discomfort.
Also, the breathing apparatus is resting on the pillow. He has to practice on that device 10 times per hour.
Greetings friends and family,
I wanted to provide you with the Thursday update on my dad. He continues to progress in his recovery and is in better spirits each and every day. You can tell that he is improving because the nature of the jokes keep improving.
During my visit this afternoon, one of the nurses was taking his temperature. She was commenting that the digital thermometer was not reading properly and that she might have to try another way. He mentioned that you could always take it the way you take it with a baby (up the backside) and she immediately said I can do that, to which he replied, very quickly I might add, "that won't be necessary". My brother and I were hoping she was going to follow through with it, but no such luck.
He has been walking much more today than yesterday and with considerably less pain. Please continue to pray for physical stamina and less pain when walking or getting out of a chair.
Also, they want him to really work on his breathing by taking larger less shallow breaths. Please pray for this part of the healing as well. He needs to get a 1000 on his breathing apparatus in order to be discharged and he is hitting the 750's pretty consistently right now.
I am including a picture that I took right before I left where he is giving everyone the thumbs up.
Thanks,
Brian
Also, the breathing apparatus is resting on the pillow. He has to practice on that device 10 times per hour.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday Update
Wednesday 11:00AM, May 19, 2010
Hi everyone,
I spoke with my mom just a few minutes ago and she said that might dad is progressing right on schedule. He was in some pain this morning but they have been able to get a handle on it with the pain medication.
At 9AM this morning, they removed the Angio balloon that has been in his artery that had the 100% blockage. He has to remain flat on his back for 6 hours while the opening in his groin area closes to ensure that he doesn't bleed from it.
At about 3PM this afternoon, they plan on getting him up to do some physical therapy. He will be walking around the current floor that he is on. If everything goes according to plan, they will move him to the Step Down Unit, which signifies that he is progressing on schedule.
It is likely that he will be discharged from the hospital on Saturday. Also, he does not have a phone in his room at this time as the nursing staff removed it so he can continue to rest. Feel free to contact me and I can pass along any messages you would like to him.
Best,
Brian
Hi everyone,
I spoke with my mom just a few minutes ago and she said that might dad is progressing right on schedule. He was in some pain this morning but they have been able to get a handle on it with the pain medication.
At 9AM this morning, they removed the Angio balloon that has been in his artery that had the 100% blockage. He has to remain flat on his back for 6 hours while the opening in his groin area closes to ensure that he doesn't bleed from it.
At about 3PM this afternoon, they plan on getting him up to do some physical therapy. He will be walking around the current floor that he is on. If everything goes according to plan, they will move him to the Step Down Unit, which signifies that he is progressing on schedule.
It is likely that he will be discharged from the hospital on Saturday. Also, he does not have a phone in his room at this time as the nursing staff removed it so he can continue to rest. Feel free to contact me and I can pass along any messages you would like to him.
Best,
Brian
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Success
Tuesday 2:52PM, May 18, 2010
Greetings everyone,
The procedure went great and my dad is now recovering in his room. The doctor said that everything turned out just fine.
They determined that he only needed a quadruple bypass once they had access to the heart which means less stitching and less scarring/healing time.
My dad should be alert enough for us to talk with him later this evening. We anticipate being able to see him around 5PM this evening. He was in a lot of pain during the first few minutes that we were able to peak on him but they anticipate being able to completely manage the pain in the next few hours and have him feeling a lot more comfortable.
Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes. It was certainly felt throughout the last few days. Now is when we really want the healing process to take hold, so we continue to ask for your prayers as the next few weeks will require a lot of healing in order for my dad to progress to complete recovery.
On a lighter note, he asked me last night if I would take a picture of him with all of the hoses/pumps/machines hooked up to him so he could look at it later when he felt better. I told him I would try but the nurses did not allow it when we briefly visited him earlier. He will be bummed, but I think he will understand. He actually asked the surgeon what type of blade they would be using for the procedure. Classic Gary.
Thanks,
Brian
Greetings everyone,
The procedure went great and my dad is now recovering in his room. The doctor said that everything turned out just fine.
They determined that he only needed a quadruple bypass once they had access to the heart which means less stitching and less scarring/healing time.
My dad should be alert enough for us to talk with him later this evening. We anticipate being able to see him around 5PM this evening. He was in a lot of pain during the first few minutes that we were able to peak on him but they anticipate being able to completely manage the pain in the next few hours and have him feeling a lot more comfortable.
Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes. It was certainly felt throughout the last few days. Now is when we really want the healing process to take hold, so we continue to ask for your prayers as the next few weeks will require a lot of healing in order for my dad to progress to complete recovery.
On a lighter note, he asked me last night if I would take a picture of him with all of the hoses/pumps/machines hooked up to him so he could look at it later when he felt better. I told him I would try but the nurses did not allow it when we briefly visited him earlier. He will be bummed, but I think he will understand. He actually asked the surgeon what type of blade they would be using for the procedure. Classic Gary.
Thanks,
Brian
Monday, May 17, 2010
Surgery Eve
Update #1 10:30PM May 17, 2010
I just got home from the hospital and my dad was in great spirits. He seemed to have a very genuine peace about the procedure tomorrow and is confident that everything will go great.
They begin the procedure at 7:30AM tomorrow morning and don't expect to be finished until 10:30 or 11:00AM tomorrow. We, as a family, will not get a chance to see him until around 1:00PM and the nurses prepared us by saying that he will be hooked up to a great number of machines and will have many drains and cords attached so to keep that in mind when we peak on him tomorrow after the surgery.
He most likely will not be coherent enough to converse with us until after 4:00PM tomorrow. Consequently, I encourage everyone to continue praying for him and hold any phone calls or visits until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. I will post updates as the day goes on so that I can keep you all apprised of the latest.
I know many of you have expressed interest in visiting so I will update this site as soon as I know when the doctors and nursing staff say that he is ready to see visitors. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.
My dad has been able to talk to much of the staff in the critical care unit, including praying with the primary nurse that has cared for him most of the time that he has been in the hospital. Please continue to pray that people would come to know Jesus as they see God's love poured out on and through my dad.
A final note to give you an idea of the great state of mind my dad was in this evening. He had to practice using this device that measures lung capacity as it is a vital component of his future recovery. When the evening nurse came in to check on him, she asked how he was doing with the device and he said to her "I bet you don't get many Olympic caliber athletes in here that can get measurements like that, do you?" As any of you that know my dad would attest, that is classic Gary.
Until tomorrow.
I just got home from the hospital and my dad was in great spirits. He seemed to have a very genuine peace about the procedure tomorrow and is confident that everything will go great.
They begin the procedure at 7:30AM tomorrow morning and don't expect to be finished until 10:30 or 11:00AM tomorrow. We, as a family, will not get a chance to see him until around 1:00PM and the nurses prepared us by saying that he will be hooked up to a great number of machines and will have many drains and cords attached so to keep that in mind when we peak on him tomorrow after the surgery.
He most likely will not be coherent enough to converse with us until after 4:00PM tomorrow. Consequently, I encourage everyone to continue praying for him and hold any phone calls or visits until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. I will post updates as the day goes on so that I can keep you all apprised of the latest.
I know many of you have expressed interest in visiting so I will update this site as soon as I know when the doctors and nursing staff say that he is ready to see visitors. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.
My dad has been able to talk to much of the staff in the critical care unit, including praying with the primary nurse that has cared for him most of the time that he has been in the hospital. Please continue to pray that people would come to know Jesus as they see God's love poured out on and through my dad.
A final note to give you an idea of the great state of mind my dad was in this evening. He had to practice using this device that measures lung capacity as it is a vital component of his future recovery. When the evening nurse came in to check on him, she asked how he was doing with the device and he said to her "I bet you don't get many Olympic caliber athletes in here that can get measurements like that, do you?" As any of you that know my dad would attest, that is classic Gary.
Until tomorrow.
Gary Kleinsmith
On Saturday, May 17, 2010, my dad was in the backyard, working to remove the old jacuzzi spa that has not been used for some time. He was using his sawzall to cut large chunks of the spa apart in order to remove it piece by piece. During that time, he was straining as many of the pieces were heavy and he felt like me may have over done it a bit. He came inside to rest and began sweating more heavily than normal.
My mom decided that they would go get some lunch in order for him to take a break and relax a bit. He eventually began to not feel very well and was asking if it was hot at the restaurant when the air conditioning was working just fine. They eventually called the paramedics after my dad mentioned that he thought he would drive himself to St. Jude Medical Center.
Upon arrival at St. Jude, he learned that he was in the middle of having a mild heart attack. Thankfully, they caught it in time so as to prevent any significant damage to the heart. The doctor immediately performed an angioplasty in order to open up the blockage in his heart. They learned that he had 100% blockage in one artery (the one already containing two stents) and found that he had blockages between 60-80% in the other major arteries as well.
The doctors have decided to perform a quintuple bypass on Tuesday morning at 7:30AM. He should be done with surgery and back to his room by about 1PM.
The outpouring of support and prayers for my dad has been wonderful. We appreciate all of the well wishes and offers of assistance for my mom and the rest of us. I will continue to update everyone via this blog as it makes more sense to have a central location for disseminating information.
My dad is in room 47 on the 4th floor at St. Jude Medical Center. As he prepares for his surgery tomorrow, please continue to pray for God's peace on this entire process. Pray for the skill of the surgeons, nurses, and staff that will be a part of the procedure and aftercare. Pray for peace and calm for my mom and strength as we all go through this process.
I am available by cell phone for any information that you might need and we ask that the visits are kept to a minimum so my dad can rest leading up to the surgery.
My dad has my mom's netbook computer in his room and we set him up on Skype. So if you are looking for an easy way to have a quick call and see him in person his Skype username is GaryKleinsmith.
Thanks again and talk to you all very soon.
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