Barry Murphy Recovery Journey

My dad has been having a lot of medical issues recently. In May of this year, he went to Urgent Care where they diagnosed him with a bacterial infection and gave him antibiotics to treat. This caused issues with nausea and vomiting and he was not able to keep anything down. He went into the hospital on June 12th where they addressed the bacterial infection as well as uncovered several other major issues. He was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney failure, an enlarged prostate, and a nasty bacterial infection. They put a central line in and sent him home with orders to be on IV antibiotics for 14 days.

We took him home on June 20 and proceeded to follow the instructions for administering the antibiotics. Less than 10 days later on June 30, not long after stopping the antibiotics, he was unable to even sit up without passing out and was incredibly pale. My sister called an ambulance to take him back to the hospital, this time in the ER. It was there that they discovered that his hemoglobin had dropped to around 3. Normal levels are around 13. The ER doctors said that was the lowest hemoglobin level that they had seen in a person who was still alive. He proceeded to get about 6 units of blood total. The doctors did an endoscopy and colonoscopy to determine where the blood loss was coming from. During the procedure, they were able to cauterize several bleeds, but also discovered that he had a polyp on his colon that was possibly cancerous.

He was then diagnosed with colon cancer on July 5 and sent home with plans to do a colorectal surgery to remove the cancer. On August 14, he had his colon surgery. He stayed in the hospital. This time only needed 3 days to recover. We thought at this point that the worst was behind us and that he was getting things taken care of so he can begin dialysis.

On August 26, I took him to what I thought was a normal follow-up appointment with his Primary Care Doctor. He did not look well when I picked him up, saying that he was weak and nauseous. He had a bit of vomiting before I was able to get him to his doctor's office. At the appointment, they took his blood pressure and it was very low. We spent a bit of time with his doctor and decided that the best plan of action was for me to take him directly to the ER.

Side note, we did get a bit of good news regarding the colon cancer. The pathology report confirmed Stage 1 Colon Cancer which is fully treatable with surgery. Thankfully, they were able to remove the mass before it progressed into the colon wall and spread to other parts of his body. For all intents and purposes, he is now cancer-free.

Back to current, he is back in the hospital now with low blood pressure, falling hemoglobin level, fluid in his abdomen and another bacterial infection. The bacterial infections are due to the kidneys not functioning at all. They started him on dialysis yesterday with the hopes that it will clear some of these issues up.

In total, he has spent 23 days in the hospital since June and we anticipate other necessary visits within this year. He has missed a significant amount of working days while he has been sick and the journey is only getting longer. I know my parents would not ask for support of this kind on their own. I have told them that they could be mad at me once dad is healthy again. (I am only halfway joking because I have to do anything to keep from crying these days) My sister and I will do everything in our power to take care of them.

We have been shown an incredible amount of compassion and generosity from our friends and workplaces, so I know they would never ask for anything. However, I know that making up for some of the lost income and covering some of the medical bills would provide them with the ability to focus all of their attention on getting him healed.

Any contributions would help them be able to navigate the next few months with less stress and anxiety as we figure out how to manage with dad's chronic medical issues. If you are not able to give, my dad is a man of very strong faith, so any prayers, words of encouragement, shares or love would be greatly appreciated as well. I know he has had a far reaching impact from his work in youth ministry and coaching sports teams over the years. I feel that he still has a big impact to make.

I cannot forget to mention the incredible staff at USA. All of the medical teams and staff have been so kind and helpful to us. Dad would not be here today if it were not for his teams of doctors at USA.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this. Thank you for the prayers and support in my life and my family's life. We will get through this together with God's grace. Much love from the Murphys.