Originally this was just going to be some thoughts and feelings after we visited with Grandpa in the hospital, but time passed and I didn't write, so now it's going to be an overview of events.
January 27th around 10:30pm, Matt's grandpa, Carl Hadfield, had a heart attack and ended up in the new Mountian Point Medical Center in Lehi. He had surgery and had two stents put in. He had another heart attack while in the hospital and went back into surgery on January 29th. Both of the new stents were blocked. They placed new ones and a couple of others. Apparently Grandpa's veins were very enlarged. There was one place they couldn't fix, even if they would have had leg stents. However, I guess it was in the one place that if you're going to have failure, that's the place to have it as it's less important than the rest of the heart? Anyway, we were blessed in that regard. The enlarged arteries were to blame for the clotting because the blood couldn't move through the veins efficiently.
Our family has been pretty amazing through all of this, utilizing our GroupMe group to keep everyone informed and to coordinate visits and care for Grandma and Grandpa. Melody (Matt's aunt) shared something that I have found important. It is below:
On
a personal note, dad looks much better today and he and mom expressed that they
have had peace since the blessing and felt that he would come home and have
more time with us. That was their feeling. Just wanted to share that. I hope
that is appropriate to share. Love you.
While Grandpa's heart was doing a little better, he still wasn't feeling great and hardly had any appetite. When he did eat, he had a hard time keeping it down. However, he did get to go home the evening of February 3rd. From the GroupMe updates, I think Grandpa felt a lot better being back home and getting to shower and sleep in his own home. Grandma even gave him a haircut on February 5th :)
To me, this was a fulfillment of that personal revelation Melody shared. He did get to go home and have more time with us. However, that time was short-lived as on the evening of February 6th, he was heading back to the hospital, this time the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. His blood pressure was low (they think that was a reaction to some of the medications he'd been put on), his kidneys weren't doing great, and he had terrible pain in his arm. They admitted him to the ICU. All of the life-upheaval wasn't helping Grandma, either. Around this time, she didn't want anyone to come over, save for Melody. I think that made it harder on everyone, too.
They found Grandpa had cellulitis. The infection had made its way to his blood stream. He was put on antibiotics and was expected to stay for 3 to 5 days to finish the course of antibiotics through his IV. They found infection in his elbow, so Grandpa had to undergo surgery again to clean that out.
We got some not great news on February 10th. I'll copy down what Brian sent in GroupMe.
They said that he has acute kidney injury as well as acute liver injury. The sepsis is now in the stage they cal septic shock. I looked it up: “septic shock, when blood pressure drops significantly. This can lead to respiratory, heart, or organ failure and death.” They did seem surprised that dad is as alert as he is, with this kind of sickness. Melody says he is more “with it” than he has been for a few days, even making lots of jokes. But physically he is probably looking a little worse.
They have some blood work in progress right now, but they will not have the results until tomorrow. That should tell them whether the organs are getting better or worse. I do not want to alarm anyone, I just want to make everyone aware of what’s happening. Melody asked the doctor privately what he thought, and the answer was that it really could go either way in the next couple of days.
The doctors were still trying to find the source of the infection as the bacteria continued to grow, even on antibiotics. On February 12th, Grandpa got a feeding tube as he still wasn't eating. The doctors found abscesses in his back and the different doctors consulted on which area needed to be focused on first (his kidneys, his back, or the bleeding he was experiencing).
February 14th, Valentine's Day and also Grandpa and Grandma's anniversary. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Grandpa called all of his kids up to the hospital to chat. He was facing dialysis and more drains being placed (he already had a drain in his elbow). Mom and Dad left church to drive to Murray. After their meeting, Dad texted us to tell us Grandpa decided to go on hospice. He was done. He had no regrets and was ready to return to his Heavenly home. Dad shared the doctor's estimate of four days. Grandpa was still in the ICU, so no one under 12 could go visit him. They talked of moving him to a regular room on Monday.
Monday, February 15th, was also a holiday, so Matt had the day off. We waited for word they had moved Grandpa so we could take the kids up to say goodbye. We got word that the hospital was full and they may not be able to move him until Tuesday. Thankfully, he was moved Monday evening and we headed up. I'll write more about our visit in a separate post. Earlier in the day, the doctors suggested staying on his blood thinners as long as he was able, and then just pain and anti-anxiety medications as needed. When they told this to Grandpa, he replied, "Who has anything to be anxious about?"
Brian told us later that he took his kids up early Tuesday morning to say goodbye and that he was glad he did because shortly thereafter, Grandpa stopped responding as he was preparing to return to his Heavenly home. Melody commented in GroupMe that there was a sacred feeling in his room.
Matt's Mom, Carrie, went up Wednesday, February 17th, to spend the majority of the day with Grandpa. That morning, Matt's Dad, Larry, called me at 10:26am to tell us that Grandpa had passed on and asked if I'd let Matt know since Matt was at work. It was sad, but it was okay. We knew it was coming. We had time to prepare and to say goodbye. We knew Grandpa was ready and that he was getting to be with Grandma ReNae again.
Carrie detailed her experience in the GroupMe chat:
I was with dad when he joined the angels. He was snoring away and the nurse came in to turn him a bit. She brought some Vaseline for me to put on his dry lips . I did that and was talking to rick Haney about dads influence in our lives. My hand was on dads shoulder. The snoring stopped. He swallowed once and that was all No jerking , no sound. Just peace. We waited afew minutes and then callled in Jamie. She confirmed that we were right, he was On his way. A good spirit was in the room. Just peace
That night, Brian and Melody hosted a wake of sorts with popcorn and ice cream in Grandpa's honor. There were lots of tears, but lots of laughs, too. We recounted stories and discussed what would be talked about at the funeral. It truly was a celebration of Grandpa's life. And like all of our family get-togethers, we shared the most memorable of Grandpa's family home evening lessons and sang our Family Night song.
Grandpa, we love you and miss you, but we know you were prepared. We will do our best to be happy and live so that we may be with you again.
