Much better (7/3)

Dad had a 3-minute stint in the operating room yesterday. His surgeon put a needle into the infected lump on his thigh, drained that thang, and sent the fluid on for analysis. They sent Dad back to his hospital room and kept the antibiotics going. He'll need another CAT-scan on 7/12, to make sure the abscess in his lung is dissipating.

He was in great spirits yesterday after the procedure. Amy & I were heading back from NYC to the hospital, and called to make sure he was back in his room. He said, "Bring me some food! I haven't eaten in 25 hours!"

"What do you want to eat?" I asked.

"You know!"

"... Pop, I'm not bringing a Fuddrucker's burger into the cardiac ward of the hospital."

"Why not?"

I couldn't really come up with a good answer, so I conferred with Dad's girlfriend, who I was afraid would kick my ass if I brought that food. She said, "Just bring it. Your father will be fine."

So we picked up a half-pound ostrich burger and some fries, and Dad was happy as the proverbial pig in shit.

They still plan to keep him in till Tuesday, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to bring him terrible food till then.

Complications (7/2)

Dad's back in the hospital. He's been (dry) coughing pretty badly ever we got him home after his heart surgery at the end of April. He's also had some alternating fevers in the last month-to-six weeks. We took him for CAT scan on Thursday, which revealed an abscess in his lung. He also has this weird tennis-ball-sized lump of hard tissue at the top of his thigh, right where the scar begins from where they took one of the veins for his bypasses.

His surgeon took one look at it Friday and admitted him back into the hospital. Looks like he's been fighting an infection ever since surgery. Being a tough guy, he kept ignoring his worsening condition, but his girlfriend noticed that he was burning up last week, and got the ball rolling for this current round of treatment. Saving his life for the nth time.

So he's going into surgery later today, where they'll drain the lump in his thigh. They'll get him on a serious load of antibiotics so that the abscess in the lung will get zapped before it spreads to his heart. Everyone (except Dad) sounds pretty optimistic about this. Dad'll be in the hospital until Tuesday (7/5) at a minimum. I'll write more as the situation warrants.