Prayers…

It has been a busy busy week, and lots of knitting has taken place since the last post, however what I’m asking for is prayers and positive thoughts in the universe for an old friend of mine, Becky, and her father Frank.  Apparently Frank accidentally swallowed part of a toothpick that was in some food he cooked:

He was in surgery for about three and half hours and when the doctor came out to talk to Karen, Becky, Lynn (Frank’s daughter) and me (his other daughter, Betty, was listening on speaker phone).  He told us that Frank had gone into acute kidney failure and that when he was an hour into the surgery, he discovered the broken toothpick in Frank’s intestine.  (When thinking back, both Karen and Becky remembered that Frank coughed and choked a little the day they were eating the hamburgers.  They said he had a surprised look on his face after swallowing and they asked if he was Ok and he said he was. Frank wears dentures and we feel that he probably didn’t even realize he had swallowed the toothpick because he didn’t ever make the connection of that to his pain). The doctor speculated that due to Frank having surgery for colon cancer previously (when they had already taken out yards of his intestines), he had a great deal of scar tissue in his intestine which caused the toothpick to lodge in the colon. The intestine was compromised on both sides of where he found the toothpick. Blood flow had been stopped to the small intestine and some of it had died.  The infection had spread into his abdominal cavity and Frank had become septic. He removed approximately three feet of colon and  the doctor said he could not reattach the large and small intestine during the surgery.  He was cautiously optimistic that Frank would survive the transfer to the main SF.  They called for a specialized ambulance to transfer him.  He needed dialysis( and other specialized care that SF South couldn’t supply) due to the total shutdown of the kidneys and that coupled with his other health issues the doctor said surgery would be done on today (Sunday, 3/2) to reattach the large and small intestine.

Saturday (3/01), 1 AM Frank arrived at SF and went into a room in their Surgery ICU. Due to total renal failure, Frank was started on dialysis with one of the new machines that circulates the blood for 24 hours.   He was sedated into a paralytic coma to stop all movement and control pain.  They knew the pain was controlled because they were monitoring the heart rate and blood pressure.  His blood pressure was very low (62/24) and medicine was given to raise it to a life sustaining level.

Today (Sunday, 3/02), Frank was taken into surgery this morning at 8:40 AM. After about an hour into the procedure the doctor stopped the surgery. He talked to Karen and said that it appeared  the small intestine was ischemic (no blood supply)  throughout the entire abdominal area and that any of the pieces that you would use to reconnect were dying. The doctor gave him a very grim prognosis. However, they have not completely given up and they are going to try to adjust his blood pressure medication and to see if that might possibly improve blood flow to the intestine. The doctor said that if he survives another 24 hours, they will look again to see if any of the small intestine is viable to try reconnection again. He is still in the induced coma, using a ventilator,  and connected to dialysis.

My heart is just breaking for this family. They need all the help they can get from this strange accident!