Pete Kazulin's Fight To Come Home

On March 20th Pete, Dad, Uncle Pete, Papa (whatever you may call him) had a fall in morning in the bathroom at home. He was unable to get back up on his own and was assisted by his son (Devon) and wife (Sandra) back to bed. Dad was brought to the hospital that morning by ambulance and our family was told not only he had severe case of pneumonia but had also suffered a stroke.

Dad being dad was stubborn and had been acting as if it was nothing, and had been acting like it was nothing for a while. It had turned out a numbness and tingling he had in his left arm since roughly January wasn’t just a pinch nerve but had been a stroke slowly forming. He stayed working during this time, never had a slurred speech, no facial droop, no signs of any stroke until it had reached its limit and thus brings us to the collapsing in the bathroom.

Dad was brought to Ridge Meadows where many chest X-rays, Head CTs and lots of blood work had been done. Dad had been his cheeky self when he was first admitted, and then slowly got sicker as the next day came. He was brought to ICU and was closely monitored. He had been started on antibiotics to help fight the infection in his lungs, which lead to trouble breathing and the ultimate plan for my dad’s best interest was to be intubated. Dad remained in ICU, intubated, sedated and unresponsive as Mom, Chelsea, Devon, Ryan (coming down from Vernon) and myself took turns remaining by his side. As each day approached, we waited to find some sort of information. Test after test being done to find the source. A head CT revealed a right sided stroke, which was the initial cause of the problems, and we were also then told he had suffered another stroke, left sided this time. Another test, an ultrasound, revealed that he had a right carotid artery which was to be the culprit where this all started. The ICU team and Dr. Hughes continued to monitor Dad and kept him comfortable and continued to run the tests to watch his progress. All during this time, Mom had left work to be by my Dad’s side day in and day out. Dad had to use his sick time and vacation time to be able to get a full paycheque for the end of the month. As Dad slowly got better as each day went by we needed to think about my mom and his future. Talking with friends and family, it was best that Dad went on short term disability, knowing that recovery time would be long. Bills don’t stop unfortunately when one gets admitted to the hospital, car payments still happen. Mortgage payments still come out of the bank account. With P.O.A(Power of attorney) issues my mom has been unable to access funds to help cover these costs.  Wheelchairs, rehab, and possible renovations at home, it’s the uncertainty of not knowing the future of how our Dad’s recovery will be.

Dad is currently improving every day. He was even able to speak for the first time in over a month (On April 25th). Of all the words to say, he chose to say “x-ray”, but it’s still a word nonetheless. Friends and family have been amazing and so supportive. The point of this page is to make my Dad’s recovery as stress free as possible. Let him keep his focus on recovery and rehab and getting back to coming home, where he belongs playing bass, ordering shoes off Amazon and washing his cars. We will gladly keep everyone up to date on a weekly basis, please don’t hesitate to contact Ryan, Chelsea, Devon or I (Jadie). If any questions or concerns, please contact one of us, let Mom focus Dad.

Thank You. Let’s work together and bring Dad home