Unexpected Travel

Earlier in the week, my grandfather (Harry J. Schmitz) fell and broke his ankle as well as hit his head pretty hard. We all thought the worst of it was going to be the ankle and the weeks of recovery for that away from home. But it seems he hit his noggin harder than we thought, and maybe something else. He was readmitted to the intensive care unit today after a dive in his blood pressure during dialysis treatment. He's been given some fluids to help him get in better shape for this needed dialysis, and we need his blood pressure not to dive when they perform it. Fingers are crossed.

I'm on the red-eye to Minneapolis tonight and will be getting in at 6am. It was very hard to leave Parie and Sofian, but I was comforted by the support that Parie gave me in helping me to make the decision to make this last-minute trip. Sofian seems to be doing better -- the gassy pains seem to be shorter in length and he seems to be settling into a more even temperment (i.e., less screaming).

[UPDATE] Things have improved greatly since I got here yesterday morning. The first positive news I received was that Harry had made it through my night of travel and had been able to receive dialysis treatment. He was pretty out of it yesterday, with a tube run through his nose draining blood from his stomach. They took that out last night, and when we came in this morning he was far more alert and was actually able to talk to us a little bit. My Uncle Jeff, Aunt Judy and I will be hanging out here at the hospital ICU waiting room through the day and rotating into his room from time to time. Luckily the hospital has a Wi-Fi connection for guests, so I'll be able to check in from time to time.

On the home front, just checked with Parie and it sounds like Sofian had a pretty good night of sleep... after a day full of screaming. Parie took him for a long drive last night to quiet him down, and it sounds like the gas bubble that had been bothering him yesterday has been dealt with this morning.