Cady Family Recovery Fund
Donation protected
On Tuesday, November 17th, our friend Shawn Cady was admitted to hospital with pain in his left arm and chest. And while it would be a simpler story to tell if it was only a heart attack, that ended up being just the beginning of his journey.
We’ve included the complete story from Kirstin Cady, Shawn’s wife, which you can read below.
Fortunately, Shawn is now home and recovering slowly, with numerous trips to doctors and the hospital for on-going tests and monitoring.
As Shawn has been off work for some time—and it is not clear when he will be able to return to work—we, as “Friends of Shawn” are asking for donations to the Cady family to help with all of the expenses during this difficult time, and to take a little pressure off of Shawn’s shoulders as he focuses on getting better.
Many thanks for anything that you can give!
Friends of Shawn
The Story - From Kirstin Cady (Shawn's Wife)
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“Tuesday, Nov 17 was senior night for our daughter Lauren, who plays soccer. Shawn was excited to be there and seemed fine at the time. He had had some minor pain earlier in the day, but it only had lasted 30 minutes or so… nothing that would seem out of the ordinary. After the game he mentioned to me that he wasn’t feeling very well. He said that his left arm and chest felt like they had the flu, so we went right to the ER.
When we got there, he checked in and was told to have a seat. I was not able to go in due to the COVID-19 restrictions, but fortunately his sister was able to go in with him because she works at the hospital. As his sister was going to the main desk to check up on why they had him waiting, the triage nurse burst out into the waiting room to get Shawn and rush him in. They quickly hooked him up to an EKG and found that he was actively having a heart attack.
They took him straight to the Cath Lab where they cleaned most of the blockage out and while there, they put in three stents. All seemed to be pretty good that evening, and he was able to get some sleep.
The following morning, on Wednesday, Shawn woke up and was having some pain. He was told by the nurses that it was perfusion pain. This was a sign of the heart healing itself and blood getting back to areas that had not been receiving blood. But the pain continued to get worse. The nurses thought that it was probably something minor like GERD or Reflux. Shawn had felt the discomfort of those two things before, and he knew this wasn’t that. He told the nurses that he was actively having another heart attack. At this point it was about 1 PM. The nurses supposedly had placed a call into the cardiologists. Shawn continued to complain of increasing pain, and was pleading for them to recognize that he was having a heart attack, and that they needed to get him to the Cath Lab.
It took an hour and a half for the doctor to call back. In the meantime, Shawn became unconscious and was “Code Blue” on the table. The staff performed CPR and very fortunately, they were able to bring him back with the defibrillator. They took him straight to the Cath Lab where they found that he had formed a clot around one of the stents that they had put in the night prior.
They cleaned the clot and also put a pump in. This was to help his heart move blood and also to give the heart a bit of a rest. After that he returned to the Cardiac Care Unit. At that time, we thought that we were in the clear; that is until we found out days later that he had almost bled out Wednesday night with no notification from his doctors or the hospital.
I was there on Thursday for most of the afternoon and into the night, trying to get him stable because he was still bleeding badly from the two catheter sites. He was also having numbness and a loss of feeling in his right leg. Again, all the nurses gave their reasons on why he was having numbness (the pump was pushing on a nerve, Sciatic pain, etc.) but he had good blood flow and his pulse was strong. He also had a huge hematoma on his right arm from below his elbow all of the way up to his armpit.
Friday was an OK day. There really wasn’t any new news.
By Saturday he was having a hard time with his leg and his arm so at some point they did a CT scan of his heart and found that he had a stroke. He had 2 infarctions in his brain, which was why he had the loss of feeling in his leg and trouble with his arm.
Sunday to Wednesday were pretty good days. He was still in the Cardiac Care Unit but was getting out of bed and moving around which was positive progress.
On Wednesday, he had been in the hospital for 8 days. They decided to move him from the Cardiac Care Unit to a regular floor. I was not very happy about it, but of course Shawn didn’t want to make a scene, so he went. Sometime later in the day after sharing that he was having a lot of nerve pain, they started him on Lyrica, which is used to treat neuropathic pain. I had requested to the hospital that any time a Doctor comes in and makes any changes or decisions that I was to be notified. I even had a paper sign taped to his TV.
Thursday was Thanksgiving, so our daughter Lauren and a family friend went to visit. I wasn’t able to see him on Wednesday or Thursday due to the limited visitation rules that came with COVID-19 protocols. The hospital was kind enough to let Lauren (who is under 18) visit with an adult.
By now, it is Friday and his sister who works at the hospital had gone in to check on him before her shift started. It was about 6:45PM. Shawn is sound asleep, but he is almost falling out of bed, with his right leg drooping on the floor (due to the numbness and limited movement). He’s totally uncovered in the bed. She helps him get back into bed and covered up and then goes to her shift. Later that afternoon, she goes to get her lunch and manages to stop by to see him while he’s in dialysis. She tries to have a conversation with him, but he was completely out of it. She called me and I came straight to the hospital.
Yes, I guess I forgot to mention that he is now on dialysis 3 days a week. When he went “Code Blue” and his organs were without blood, the organs were shocked and stopped functioning properly.
When I arrived at the hospital Shawn was back in his room. He was a little more awake, but he was having twitches and was also having trouble remembering things, making sentences, and reading. In the time since I last saw him, his cognitive behavior had completely changed. At that time, I asked for another CT scan, fearing that he may have had another stroke. Fortunately, that was not the case. He was having a bad reaction to the Lyrica and was being over medicated. They had given him Lyrica, Norco (hydrocodone/acetaminophen), a Xanax before dialysis, and a Valium during dialysis. I can’t imagine why they would give him that much medication if his kidneys were already unable to filter his blood. That was the reason he was on dialysis in the first place. His sister and I asked that he be taken off the Lyrica and that the medication for dialysis be limited. The following Monday, when he was due for his next dialysis, we were able to make sure he was not overly medicated.
On Monday, the vascular doctor also ordered an ultrasound of his hip/groin area because the pain was still quite bad. He did find two huge hematomas, but luckily no more clotting.
By Wednesday he was getting up and moving around the room. This was 15 days after he’d been first admitted to the hospital. By Friday he was making laps around his floor... of course, still with a walker.
He’s definitely a fighter, and he continues to feel better, so for that we’re really thankful.”
We’ve included the complete story from Kirstin Cady, Shawn’s wife, which you can read below.
Fortunately, Shawn is now home and recovering slowly, with numerous trips to doctors and the hospital for on-going tests and monitoring.
As Shawn has been off work for some time—and it is not clear when he will be able to return to work—we, as “Friends of Shawn” are asking for donations to the Cady family to help with all of the expenses during this difficult time, and to take a little pressure off of Shawn’s shoulders as he focuses on getting better.
Many thanks for anything that you can give!
Friends of Shawn
The Story - From Kirstin Cady (Shawn's Wife)
----
“Tuesday, Nov 17 was senior night for our daughter Lauren, who plays soccer. Shawn was excited to be there and seemed fine at the time. He had had some minor pain earlier in the day, but it only had lasted 30 minutes or so… nothing that would seem out of the ordinary. After the game he mentioned to me that he wasn’t feeling very well. He said that his left arm and chest felt like they had the flu, so we went right to the ER.
When we got there, he checked in and was told to have a seat. I was not able to go in due to the COVID-19 restrictions, but fortunately his sister was able to go in with him because she works at the hospital. As his sister was going to the main desk to check up on why they had him waiting, the triage nurse burst out into the waiting room to get Shawn and rush him in. They quickly hooked him up to an EKG and found that he was actively having a heart attack.
They took him straight to the Cath Lab where they cleaned most of the blockage out and while there, they put in three stents. All seemed to be pretty good that evening, and he was able to get some sleep.
The following morning, on Wednesday, Shawn woke up and was having some pain. He was told by the nurses that it was perfusion pain. This was a sign of the heart healing itself and blood getting back to areas that had not been receiving blood. But the pain continued to get worse. The nurses thought that it was probably something minor like GERD or Reflux. Shawn had felt the discomfort of those two things before, and he knew this wasn’t that. He told the nurses that he was actively having another heart attack. At this point it was about 1 PM. The nurses supposedly had placed a call into the cardiologists. Shawn continued to complain of increasing pain, and was pleading for them to recognize that he was having a heart attack, and that they needed to get him to the Cath Lab.
It took an hour and a half for the doctor to call back. In the meantime, Shawn became unconscious and was “Code Blue” on the table. The staff performed CPR and very fortunately, they were able to bring him back with the defibrillator. They took him straight to the Cath Lab where they found that he had formed a clot around one of the stents that they had put in the night prior.
They cleaned the clot and also put a pump in. This was to help his heart move blood and also to give the heart a bit of a rest. After that he returned to the Cardiac Care Unit. At that time, we thought that we were in the clear; that is until we found out days later that he had almost bled out Wednesday night with no notification from his doctors or the hospital.
I was there on Thursday for most of the afternoon and into the night, trying to get him stable because he was still bleeding badly from the two catheter sites. He was also having numbness and a loss of feeling in his right leg. Again, all the nurses gave their reasons on why he was having numbness (the pump was pushing on a nerve, Sciatic pain, etc.) but he had good blood flow and his pulse was strong. He also had a huge hematoma on his right arm from below his elbow all of the way up to his armpit.
Friday was an OK day. There really wasn’t any new news.
By Saturday he was having a hard time with his leg and his arm so at some point they did a CT scan of his heart and found that he had a stroke. He had 2 infarctions in his brain, which was why he had the loss of feeling in his leg and trouble with his arm.
Sunday to Wednesday were pretty good days. He was still in the Cardiac Care Unit but was getting out of bed and moving around which was positive progress.
On Wednesday, he had been in the hospital for 8 days. They decided to move him from the Cardiac Care Unit to a regular floor. I was not very happy about it, but of course Shawn didn’t want to make a scene, so he went. Sometime later in the day after sharing that he was having a lot of nerve pain, they started him on Lyrica, which is used to treat neuropathic pain. I had requested to the hospital that any time a Doctor comes in and makes any changes or decisions that I was to be notified. I even had a paper sign taped to his TV.
Thursday was Thanksgiving, so our daughter Lauren and a family friend went to visit. I wasn’t able to see him on Wednesday or Thursday due to the limited visitation rules that came with COVID-19 protocols. The hospital was kind enough to let Lauren (who is under 18) visit with an adult.
By now, it is Friday and his sister who works at the hospital had gone in to check on him before her shift started. It was about 6:45PM. Shawn is sound asleep, but he is almost falling out of bed, with his right leg drooping on the floor (due to the numbness and limited movement). He’s totally uncovered in the bed. She helps him get back into bed and covered up and then goes to her shift. Later that afternoon, she goes to get her lunch and manages to stop by to see him while he’s in dialysis. She tries to have a conversation with him, but he was completely out of it. She called me and I came straight to the hospital.
Yes, I guess I forgot to mention that he is now on dialysis 3 days a week. When he went “Code Blue” and his organs were without blood, the organs were shocked and stopped functioning properly.
When I arrived at the hospital Shawn was back in his room. He was a little more awake, but he was having twitches and was also having trouble remembering things, making sentences, and reading. In the time since I last saw him, his cognitive behavior had completely changed. At that time, I asked for another CT scan, fearing that he may have had another stroke. Fortunately, that was not the case. He was having a bad reaction to the Lyrica and was being over medicated. They had given him Lyrica, Norco (hydrocodone/acetaminophen), a Xanax before dialysis, and a Valium during dialysis. I can’t imagine why they would give him that much medication if his kidneys were already unable to filter his blood. That was the reason he was on dialysis in the first place. His sister and I asked that he be taken off the Lyrica and that the medication for dialysis be limited. The following Monday, when he was due for his next dialysis, we were able to make sure he was not overly medicated.
On Monday, the vascular doctor also ordered an ultrasound of his hip/groin area because the pain was still quite bad. He did find two huge hematomas, but luckily no more clotting.
By Wednesday he was getting up and moving around the room. This was 15 days after he’d been first admitted to the hospital. By Friday he was making laps around his floor... of course, still with a walker.
He’s definitely a fighter, and he continues to feel better, so for that we’re really thankful.”
Co-organizers (2)
Kirby McBride
Organizer
Newton, MA
Shawn Cady
Beneficiary
Josh McBride
Co-organizer