Emergency

Everyone experiences pain. Everyone has secrets. Some more painful than others. Sometimes it is easy to forget that people carry these secrets, this pain, this weight on their shoulders. I know I have. Maybe that girl in the car next to me has a loved one with cancer. Maybe that man I passed on my way to class is suffering with an incurable disease.That girl I see every day doesn't want to show people that she is hurting inside.

This weekend I have been reminded that people do carry hidden weights to those that do not know them. I found out last night, just as I was going to bed, that my Dad is in the ICU at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland.

A few days ago he went hiking with my brothers. He was complaining about some discomfort on his elbow. he came home with a swollen elbow, so my mom put ice on it. He rested and hoped the swelling would go down. It didn't. They went to the doctor, who thought it could  be cellulitis, which I guess means your cells break apart and expand- I could be wrong- they gave him antibiotics for it and he rested all day Sunday. He seemed fine, aside from being a bit out of it from the meds. That evening just as my brothers left for a church event, he told my mom he felt like passing. Since he was laying down she just told him to pass out, he wouldn't get hurt. So he did. But then his body postrated or went rigid like a board. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his face lost all its color. My mom called 911 and they were rushed to a local hospital. They then decided he needed more severe attention and they took another ambulance ride to Legacy Emanuel Hospital where he was rushed into their ICU. They intubated him, got him attached to a ventilator and told my mom he was septic or that all his organs were failing from a blood disease. . .

This is when my brother called to tell me what was going on. He wasn't entirely sure himself, so I called my mother. On the other line I could only hear her crying. I told her I loved her and she could call me back. A bit later she called and told me what happened. I was in shock. Am in shock. It still does not feel real to me.

He was rushed to surgery to remove what they believe is necrotizing fascitis, a flesh eating disease.

This morning my Dad is out of surgery but he is still in the ICU with an intubator. He will be there all day and then he will go back into surgery again tomorrow to remove the rest of the disease. Then he will go into surgery again for a skin graft on his elbow since there was a lot of flesh removed.

 I pray that he will be ok. I feel like he will and I hope that feeling is true.

This is my hidden pain to those around me that do not know me. . .
I need lots of nice smiles and patience from strangers. :) And friends of course too.