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My Dad’s Medical Journey Through My Eyes
Posted on October 21, 2016October 21, 2016
Early Tuesday morning I got a call at 5:30 a.m. from my uncle on my mom’s phone. At first I thought that something had happened to my mom, but he told me that my dad was in the ICU and was in critical condition. He asked if I would be able to get to the airport, and I said that I can find a way there, I just need to get home to California. The next 3 hours were a total mess, I don’t even remember if I packed toothpaste or socks and didn’t know how long I would be home with my family. Once I got to the airport I checked in and ended up on standby because my uncle accidentally bought a ticket for October 27, and it was the 11th…. Yeah, I was a little worried for a second, but I got back to Sacramento and got to my dad.
Walking into the ICU for the first time was really scary, and I even prepared myself to see my dad all hooked up with wires and tubes coming out. I almost couldn’t walk into the room at first because it was so hard to see my dad look like that. I forced myself in and kind of just stood in the corner and watched because I was too scared to actually touch him. I told myself that he needs to know that I’m there and needs to know that I love him. I started crying when I grabbed his hand and said Hi, and his eyes opened and he squeezed my hand. The doctors had him sedated and on about 10 different medications, so I thought he was out and wouldn’t hear me. The whole day and the next few days was just to get him stable and to wean him off of some meds. After that they would do tests to see what actually happened to him, because this whole time no one knew what happened to my dad.
Friday, the 14th was one of the scariest days; they took him off the sedation a little to see where he was brain activity wise. He still had the ventilator in and started freaking out and wouldn’t hold the oxygen in and they had to switch him to a different more intense ventilator that made more noise. That day we also found out the cause of all the problems, his tumor that was supposed to be benign was causing all of this. The type of tumor is a lymphangioma, and he’s had it removed 2 other times and didn’t want surgery to remove it again. We talked to all of the local cardiothoracic surgeons to see if they’d operate because this was the only chance to save him. They all said no it was inoperable and that he wouldn’t even survive the surgery if they were to try. It was heartbreaking to hear and made this all seem more real than ever. My mom thought that there had to be a way to make this easier so we made a list of everything to try to help and the list consisted of, oncology, sending the scans out to other surgeons throughout the state and even to Harvard. I didn’t lose hope but my mom almost did.
Skip forward to Wednesday the 19th, my mom got a call that there was a surgeon that was willing to try to operate on my dad. The surgeon is in a hospital in San Jose, CA. We looked him up, and his track record was amazing and he pulled some Grey’s Anatomy type surgeries that no one would think is possible. So, they sent a helicopter to pick my dad up; he’s still hooked up to the vent and is sedated. The paramedics on the helicopter came in, packed him up, and managed to fit his whole room in on one little gurney. They transferred him to the helipad and waited to load the helicopter. They were in the process of putting my dad in the helicopter, and found out that there was a mechanical problem with the helicopter. My dad has always wanted to ride on a helicopter so we joke around that he finally gets his helicopter ride. We had to wait for a new helicopter for about 40 mins, but when it came he was in and off to San Jose. My mom, brother, grandma, grandpa, my mom’s best friend drove down to San Jose to meet my dad even though we got there 2 hours later. We went straight to the hospital at 8:30 to visit my dad and he looked just like he was in Sacramento, sedated and with a ventilator in.
Today, the 20th we meet with the surgeon, and he said that he wanted to do some tests to try to see what the best action plan is for my dad. He has a ton of ideas and doesn’t think that my dad is a lost cause. My dad already looks a lot better than he did before and is only going the the right direction. The new hospital looks like it is straight out of a movie, it’s so big and high-tech. We feel like my dad is in good hands, and we feel confident that this will end well, we weren’t so sure before but now there is more hope than ever.
One of the ways I’ve been coping with all of this is learning what all of the machines mean and all of the medicines. I’d ask the nurses and respiratory therapists what everything means, mostly just to confirm what I was thinking. So whenever any alarm goes off I don’t worry as much because I know what it all means. Back in the hospital in Sacramento they called me their little “nurse-let” and told me to tell them when I’m switching from a speech therapy major to a nursing major. My friends back at school and here in California have been the best and have made me feel loved and supported. I can’t thank them enough for all of their words of love and support to me and my family.
Erica McNeill
Posted on October 21, 2016October 21, 2016
Early Tuesday morning I got a call at 5:30 a.m. from my uncle on my mom’s phone. At first I thought that something had happened to my mom, but he told me that my dad was in the ICU and was in critical condition. He asked if I would be able to get to the airport, and I said that I can find a way there, I just need to get home to California. The next 3 hours were a total mess, I don’t even remember if I packed toothpaste or socks and didn’t know how long I would be home with my family. Once I got to the airport I checked in and ended up on standby because my uncle accidentally bought a ticket for October 27, and it was the 11th…. Yeah, I was a little worried for a second, but I got back to Sacramento and got to my dad.
Walking into the ICU for the first time was really scary, and I even prepared myself to see my dad all hooked up with wires and tubes coming out. I almost couldn’t walk into the room at first because it was so hard to see my dad look like that. I forced myself in and kind of just stood in the corner and watched because I was too scared to actually touch him. I told myself that he needs to know that I’m there and needs to know that I love him. I started crying when I grabbed his hand and said Hi, and his eyes opened and he squeezed my hand. The doctors had him sedated and on about 10 different medications, so I thought he was out and wouldn’t hear me. The whole day and the next few days was just to get him stable and to wean him off of some meds. After that they would do tests to see what actually happened to him, because this whole time no one knew what happened to my dad.
Friday, the 14th was one of the scariest days; they took him off the sedation a little to see where he was brain activity wise. He still had the ventilator in and started freaking out and wouldn’t hold the oxygen in and they had to switch him to a different more intense ventilator that made more noise. That day we also found out the cause of all the problems, his tumor that was supposed to be benign was causing all of this. The type of tumor is a lymphangioma, and he’s had it removed 2 other times and didn’t want surgery to remove it again. We talked to all of the local cardiothoracic surgeons to see if they’d operate because this was the only chance to save him. They all said no it was inoperable and that he wouldn’t even survive the surgery if they were to try. It was heartbreaking to hear and made this all seem more real than ever. My mom thought that there had to be a way to make this easier so we made a list of everything to try to help and the list consisted of, oncology, sending the scans out to other surgeons throughout the state and even to Harvard. I didn’t lose hope but my mom almost did.
Skip forward to Wednesday the 19th, my mom got a call that there was a surgeon that was willing to try to operate on my dad. The surgeon is in a hospital in San Jose, CA. We looked him up, and his track record was amazing and he pulled some Grey’s Anatomy type surgeries that no one would think is possible. So, they sent a helicopter to pick my dad up; he’s still hooked up to the vent and is sedated. The paramedics on the helicopter came in, packed him up, and managed to fit his whole room in on one little gurney. They transferred him to the helipad and waited to load the helicopter. They were in the process of putting my dad in the helicopter, and found out that there was a mechanical problem with the helicopter. My dad has always wanted to ride on a helicopter so we joke around that he finally gets his helicopter ride. We had to wait for a new helicopter for about 40 mins, but when it came he was in and off to San Jose. My mom, brother, grandma, grandpa, my mom’s best friend drove down to San Jose to meet my dad even though we got there 2 hours later. We went straight to the hospital at 8:30 to visit my dad and he looked just like he was in Sacramento, sedated and with a ventilator in.
Today, the 20th we meet with the surgeon, and he said that he wanted to do some tests to try to see what the best action plan is for my dad. He has a ton of ideas and doesn’t think that my dad is a lost cause. My dad already looks a lot better than he did before and is only going the the right direction. The new hospital looks like it is straight out of a movie, it’s so big and high-tech. We feel like my dad is in good hands, and we feel confident that this will end well, we weren’t so sure before but now there is more hope than ever.
One of the ways I’ve been coping with all of this is learning what all of the machines mean and all of the medicines. I’d ask the nurses and respiratory therapists what everything means, mostly just to confirm what I was thinking. So whenever any alarm goes off I don’t worry as much because I know what it all means. Back in the hospital in Sacramento they called me their little “nurse-let” and told me to tell them when I’m switching from a speech therapy major to a nursing major. My friends back at school and here in California have been the best and have made me feel loved and supported. I can’t thank them enough for all of their words of love and support to me and my family.
Erica McNeill
Organizer and beneficiary
Tim McNeill
Beneficiary