Hello friends,

My dad has been admitted to the hospital for around a week now due to complications with multiple issues that kind of just crashed together all at once.

He has CIDP, heart failure, and newly diagnosed spinal disc swelling in basically every vertebra except a few.

The CIDP causes numbness in his feet, which already made it challenging to walk. Around 3 months ago, he fell down our stairs pretty hard, and that's what began a downfall so quick our heads spun. He began falling almost every day for about a month and a half straight. He fell at work and home, and finally, it got to a point where he could barely get up out of his car on his own.

My husband, mom, and I convinced him to stay seated throughout the day, and we would tend to him. At first, he was at least able to stand up on his own, and with the help of a walker and a steady hand, he could shuffle his way to the bathroom and such. For doctor's appointments, when we would need to get him downstairs, it would be a joint effort between my husband and me to lead him down the stairs and keep him steady.

Eventually, he was unable to stand on his own. We would need to lift him and keep his body up in order to change his clothes and other things.

It took 2 months for him to get a consultation for his spine, which, as stated prior, was swollen, causing these sharp, electrifying tingles down his legs and causing the weakness within them. We got him to the hospital for this consultation, and while doing so, we noticed him being extremely short of breath, which was new in the cascade of things happening to this poor man.

It is also worth noting that due to his heart failure, water retention in his limbs is prominent. This also has caused weakness in the muscles and an inability to feel things to an extent.

While in the consultation room, the surgeon's nurse took my dad's vitals multiple times to ensure they were correct. His oxygen level was at only 84%, and he could not catch his breath for anything. The surgeon straight up said that as he was, he was certainly not a candidate for surgery and that he recommended we take him across the street to the hospital's urgent care and get admitted because while being there for an hour, he still couldn't catch his breath sitting completely still.

Moving over to urgent care, they put him on oxygen immediately. I started noticing every time he exhaled, there would be a gurgling noise. The doctors performed a chest X-ray where we found that the water retention happening in his legs and arms had moved into his lungs, explaining the O2 level and gurgling.

They admitted him.

After admission, they pumped him full of Lasix to make him pee out all the retained water and clear out his lungs, to hopefully improve his heart functionality and ability to sustain oxygen levels to prepare him for spinal surgery.

After being in the hospital over a week, he is finally ready enough for his first surgery, which will be in his neck. The next, which we're unsure when it will be, will be in his lumbar area, hopefully allowing him the ability to walk again. After this surgery, he will have bed rest in the hospital and then will be transferred out to either an acute rehab facility or a skilled nursing facility for his recovery and rehabilitation.

I ask kindly and humbly of anyone who comes across this to help my family and me brace for the medical bills my father definitely will have in the upcoming future. I would hate for his recovery to be tainted by the stress of bill collectors hassling him.

So please give us a hand, thank you in advance. ❤️