A Matter of the Heart

The Thayer family has been on another adventure the last 24 hours. Yesterday daddy’s blood pressure dropped and he almost fainted. With the help of grandson #3.1 mom was able to keep daddy from falling and call the ambulance. They transported him to the Nowata ER where a couple of EKGs showed some irregularities so he went to Jane Phillips in Bartlesville for more tests. They are doing his blood work every 6 hours to check for signs of heart attack. The other possible cause of the low BP could be that daddy switched from a blood pressure patch to pill form yesterday. Of course, we’re hoping for the latter. 

The physical and occupational therapists at Jane Phillips came in today and gave us a few more exercises to help strengthen daddy’s right arm and leg. It’s nice to get new and different methods to try, I’m sure he gets bored of our same old exercises.

The dietician came in and chatted with us about daddy’s continued weight loss. He’s down about 30 lbs since the stroke (losing 2 ½ of those pounds in the last week.) We decided to add a daily protein drink so hopefully that will help bulk him up.

Dr. T and the nurse practitioner confirmed this evening some irregularities on daddy’s EKG. They said a normal reading would be at .1 and that daddy’s reading was at .3, however, a heart attack victim would have readings close to 50. The dr. believes the .3 reading could either be a result of the stroke or it could just be his normal heart rhythm. Either way we are very excited to hear that he isn’t having heart issues.

Daddy also got a stomach bug (when it rains it pours) so he's staying one more night in the hospital. They believe it’s just a virus but are running a test just to be sure. Until then he is on a light diet of apple sauce and toast!

         #2