What a roller coaster!

Posted on January 17, 2005 by Matt Todd

Saturday we went to Knoxville for a birthday party. It started at 6. It was a big deal – a bigger deal than most 1st birthdays; that’s a different posting for a different time. Several of our friends from college were there, and it was good to see them.

Then the call came.

At 6:20-ish, Christy’s sister called, with the news that her dad had gone into cardiac arrest. By 6:30, we had loaded the kids in the car and were on our way to Indy. Things sounded so bad that we were concerned he wouldn’t survive long enough for us to see him again. It was, after all, a 6-hour drive!

Fortunately, they managed to stabilize him during our trip, and by the time we got there, he was sedated and they were in the process of getting the rest of his insides under control (all kinds of issues were going on inside him). The kids stayed with Christy’s mom saturday night, and we stayed in the ICU waiting room.

Yesterday morning, Laura woke Christy up and told her that he had a good night, and she could go back and see him before the shift-change. He was stabilized and on his way to getting everything resolved. Then, during the shift-change, he threw up and aspirated. The nurses said he aspirated a lot, but the doctor said later he most likely aspirated just a little bit of…well, gunk…in spite of the fact that he was intubated. So things were looking pretty bad again.

Finally, in the early afternoon, they got him stabilized enough that we could see that he was on the upswing. Last night was a very good night, and for today, he is essentially out of the woods. They hope to take the tube out of his throat sometime today. If he can get cleaned up enough, we’re going to take the kids up tonight for him to see them.

Tomorrow they plan on putting in a permanent pacemaker in. Once they get all of this taken care of, then they’ll finally take care of his hip. Maybe on Thursday.

So we’re in Indy wearing borrowed clothes and borrowed toys for the kids. Tomorrow, I’ll hopefully be able to pick up a coat from my brother, since I didn’t figure I need one for a simple trip to Knoxville.

I hope the roller coaster stays boring from here on out. We’re at my father-in-law’s house now. I’m going to take a shower; the first one since Saturday!

Thank God for cell phones and caring friends who are willing to do anything! Prayer is such a powerful thing!

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"