Settled In

Dad is all safe and sound at home.  He is willing and able to receive visitors, if anyone is wanting to, just maybe call ahead.  This will probably be my last update, since dad is getting better and he will be back to answering your questions and telling his stories.  Thank you all for your love and support, hope I don't have to do another one of these for a long time :)

Who Says You Can't Come Home

Dad is on his way home. Not a whole lot of details other then he will have oxygen.  Will try to fill you in with more info when I am able to get home from work. 

Coming Home

Dad will be coming home this afternoon.  Mom just called us at work to let us know.  Not sure of exact time.

Couple More Days

Sounds like dad will be in the hospital for a couple more days.  He is making definate progress, but they are still concerned about some things.  He will be scheduling a sleep study soon so that he can get a C-Pap machine for at home.  Getting more and more active, hopefully nothing but good news form here on in.

New Surroundings

Dad's new room #333 is in a different part of the hospital.  You may need to ask for directions at the front desk, as I have not yet been there so I don't know how to get you there(Sorry!).  Mom said there is a chance that he may come home tomorrow? I will let you know if that is the case.

New Room

Dad got moved out of ICU. yeah!! He is now in room 333.

Moving On Up

The Dr. came in and told dad they may be moving him upstairs in a little while(possibly tonight) where he doesn't need as much watching.  Physical therapist is here she is going to try and get him moving around.  Dad says the Dr told him they may send him home in a few days? Had lunch, chicken, veggies, rice and some applesauce.  He is not attached to any more machines, other then the oxygen which is just a tube going to his nose.  He was up and walking, going to the door and back to the chair, his oxygen dropped just a bit under 90 when he did that.  Looks pretty good :) Did see more of dad then I wanted to (Full moon in the middle of the day)

To the Guys

Sparky, dad wants to make sure that you don't get too comfortable in that office all by yourself :)  TJ and Holle watch your backs. ( Told you he's feeling better :D) Thanks for all the support and help.

Just keeps getting better

At the hospital with dad.  He is feeling still better.  Got to eat real food this morning, eggs, hashbrowns, apple juice, and some peaches.  Much more alert and in a good mood.  Ready to get out of here as soon as he can.  Thanks to Gloria for letting everybody know how to find out about dad, and Cheryl dad doesn't know what the jello comment means, never mind he just remembered :)

Tonight Is the Test

Dad is in a good mood, making jokes, complaining about his undecernably flavored pudding.  Taken off of a couple more monitors,  only being checked on every four hours (down from every two).  Doing well on the breathing tests.  This will be his first time being asleep without being hooked up to the ventilator.  We hope to get no phone calls tonight.  Will let you know, as soon as we do, how things went.  Wanted to let you know dad has been reading your posts.

Update

Dad is still doing well, practicing deep breaths on a little device they gave him.  Needs to fill his lungs with oxygen. The feeding tube is gone :) Things look better and better.  Thanks to everyone that has sent messages, either directly or indirectly.  We could not have gotten this far without your love and support.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Just got out from visiting dad.  He was sitting up in a chair, finishing up lunch.  They should be removing the feeding tube soon.  I asked him what he wanted me to say to all of his fans out there and he replied "Tell them all thank you" (with a smile on his face)  He looks like he is feeling better and better.  He has  a much more positive attitude then yesterday.  He doesn't even remember anything that happened yesterday.  I guess, sometimes, father knows best.

Still good.

Dad is still breathing well on his own.  His oxygen needs to stay above 90, last I was in there it was at 93.  Not sure exactly what that means, but those are the numbers.  They are starting to get him to eat, starting with ice chips, then jello, etc.  He needs to keep those down and then they can move on to more solid foods resulting in them being able to remove the feeding tube. 

Tube is Out!

They took the tube out about 10 minutes ago.  Dad is breathing on his own! They have told him not to talk too much, try to keep it to yes and no questions.(We all know how difficult this will be for him)  He seems to be doing well.  I printed all of your notes and read them to him.  They are in his room incase he wants to read them later.  Will post if there are any changes.  The respritory technician seemed happy with what he saw.

So It Begins

At about 7am this morning they turned off the ventilator, dad is now breathing on his own.  He is taking even breaths, which is good.  They will be taking the tube out around 8:30.  I will do my best to keep you all informed on what happens then or if there are any changes up until then.  He wants mom to stay in the room with him, the rest of us are going in off and on.

Between 7-10am

That is the time they have given us tomorrow that they are going to take him off the breathing machine.  They are going to put him on a C-Pap machine which is what they put people on that have sleep apnea.  We will still spend the rest of the time up until then trying to convince him that he needs to do what's best, what will get him better the fastest.  Thank you everyone that has sent a post, I will be reading those to him shortly.  Will give you updates as I get them.  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Giving Up

Dad is trying to give up.  He wants the ventilator off and the breathing and feeding tubes out.  He has a DPA that states he does not want his life prolonged on machine.  We are willing to respect his wishes, but it does state that this is the case only if his outcome is hopeless.  His is anything but.  Things look good, his blood levels are good, it is just a matter of getting him to breath on his own.  We need people to send him posts, or e-mails to the hospital to let him know that there are many people that care about him.  He may be done fighting, but we aren't.  He has agreed to stay on the machine for at least the rest of today.  They are going to try to take him off again tomorrow morning.  Hopefully by then we can get him to agree to allow them to continue to help him.  Please help us, help him know that there are many people that care.

Baby Steps

At the hospital with dad, got here about a half hour ago.  The respirator specialist says that they are going to keep him on the ventilator for today.  They tried twice this morning to take him off and he just isn't ready.  They do say he is getting better.  He is still trying to talk to us.  It gets him agitated so we are trying to keep his visitors to family until the tube is out.  When that happens I will let all of you know so, that if you want to, you can come and visit.

Still causing trouble

Even being heavily sedated, dad and I found a way to get him in trouble.  He has been trying to talk with the tube in and it doesn't work very well.  I got the first part of his message and could not get the last word,  he was asking me what time I was going to... and I could not get the last word.  The both of us were getting frustrated, it was causing his ventilator to go off and resulted in them having to sedate him.  He is even playing jokes while in there.  He kept making his leg fall of the bed so that mom would have to lift it back up, when she asked if he was doing it to get her attention, he got a big grin on his face.  It was good to see. We will again be going home at seven so that dad can get his rest and mom can get hers. 

Sunday

I spoke with Mom and she says dad is doing still better.  He has been staying awake longer and they are communicating with him.  Dad is trying to talk with them though and this is proving difficult with the ventilator in.  They are going to keep him on it until he is breathing on his own.  I will be going to see him tonight and will let you know before that if I hear anything new.  I hope I am giving you all enough information, if you have any questions please be sure and ask, they may help us as well.

More of the same

Dad is still stable, they are making slow changes to his respirator, making him have to breath more on his own.  Mom and I will be leaving here at 7pm when they go through nurse shift changes.  Mom and Collette will come back tomorrow morning and I will have Collette call me so that I can update all of you.  Wish I had more to update you on, but I guess slow and steady wins the race.

On a lighter note

I have discovered that humans aren't the only ones affected by people being in the hospital.  Rufus(my dog) has a kennel at mom and dad's house.  When we first put him in it, he found a way out by pulling a hole in the chain link.  We blocked it and thought that he had settled in. For the last three years this system has seemed to work.  Fast forward to yesterday... pouring rain and April gets to mom's to check on the dog's and Rufus is waiting for her on the porch(he was in the kennel when we left for the hospital).  She and Jordan try to fix the hole and put him back in.  Less than an hour later April was back and Rufus was waiting for her on the porch again.  I left from work and went to mom's to fix the hole, again.  I dragged a pallet over, bungeed it to the outside and thought problem solved.  When I got home last night, came to find out that he just made another hole next to the other one.  This morning two great friends(Hi Jeff and Elaine, thank you:)  brought over a runner for Rufus and set it up so that we could get to the hospital and see dad.  Hopefully this will work and we can once again put the focus where it is needed.  Dog's, sometimes, are not man's best friend.

Good news

Just got to the hospital, dad is a little more responsive.  He has his eyes open and he nodded when I asked him a question.  Still fighting the breathing tube.  Told him to relax and he did.  They are hoping to take it off of him tomorrow.  He told the nurse he wasn't in any pain so they haven't been giving him a lot of meds for pain.

No news is good news

Mom and I are here, we spoke with the nurse.  They are keeping him on the respirator today again, so he will not be awake, his blood is not oxygenated enough. The CAT scan showed no blood clots, but there is some inflammation in the lungs.  They will not be performing anymore tests today, so there probably won't be many updates.  If anyone has any questions, please leave them here and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.  Again thank you everyone for everything.  We are on floor 6. You need to pick up the phone and give dad's name and room number which is 6C2.  I will be here til 12 or so and then Collette will be heading in around 2.  Mom will be here all day.

I hate hospitals

We have waited here all day to learn nothing.... they are taking him down now to do a CAT scan, but will have to wait for a radiologist to read it.  They can't/won't give us an exact time when that will be.  We are all headed home to get some "rest".  Hope to have more, hopefully better, news tomorrow.

Waiting....

Nothing to report, dad is in stable condition.  Doctor is in examining him and should be giving us an update soon.  Hi Lee.  Fyi some of you may have heard that April was having some contractions earlier today. When I asked her if she has had any lately she replied "Nooooooooooooo" I will not ask her again for awhile. Pregnant ladies are touchy.

New surroundings

Dad is now at St. Joseph, we again wait for tests to be done.  He is in room 6C2.  We are filling up the waiting room as we speak.

The beginning

I know a lot of people are concerned about what is going on with Rob Chaussee, or dad as I know him.  I thought this would be a good way to keep everyone informed and give all of you a way to let dad know that you are thinking of him. As most of you know, on March 13, 2011, mom took dad to Enumclaw hospital emergency after he couldn't catch his breath while coughing.  He was admitted that night for observations.  Since then, there have been a lot of developments.  As of right now we are waiting for an ambulance to transport dad to St. Joseph's hospital in Tacoma where there are a Pulmonary and Heart specialist that will evaluate dad's condition. We are all appreciative of everyones love and concern for our family.  I, or one of us, will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible.  Feel free to leave your thoughts here for dad or the rest of us.