Dad 1

So I'm going to give up on the whole nickname thing in general; I'll keep a couple to make some things easier and keep some things (hopefully) harder to figure out--rather not announce some things to the entire world, you know? Anyway, I'm going to post the updates (with minimal editing to have it seem like a blog instead of a note to people) on Dad here--kinda like a journal of what's been going on--it seems very appropriate to continue this here.

Dad's at Mercy Hospital in Janesville, WI. He has pancreatitis. His blood pressure is high, so is his pulse (135? I think?). And his blood sugar was rising. For normal people, anything over 200 is bad. While I was there, it was tested as 435 or so. After I left, they tested again (I think they do it every 2 hours?) and it was 454. But I just talked to Laura again, his recent test was at 392. He's still in pain--he's on a morphine drip, though, so it's only a 4 (scale 1-10).

Since I got home, I read up on pancreatitis--the high pulse is a normal thing. His pancreas isn't producing the digestive juices it's supposed to, so he's blocked up. No bowel movements yet, but he's still urinating, so his kidneys are probably OK. I also looked up diabetes--it can "lead to. . . an inability to control heart rate and blood pressure during postural changes," and everytime they were taking his blood pressure it was right after he had sat up or laid back down. So I'm feeling better than I was about this whole thing--it's not always chronic, so, we're keeping our fingers crossed!!

I'll be going back to the hospital tomorrow morning; he's already received a blessing and his name has been put on the Chicago Temple's prayer roll for us. Dad's pretty weak, isn't talking much, doesn't want to be read to or anything because it distracts him so he can't sleep.