[Alsky]

Hi,
Sorry for the delay--I wrote a lengthy response the other day but my computer froze!

Anyway, my father ended up back in the hospital (Duke) last Tuesday night b/c he was having a really difficult time breathing. he is still there. They think it is pneumonia. He responded almost immediately to the antibiotics, but he has had some other problems since then. The other night his heart rate got into the 160's and now they want to do a cardioversion "shock" to his heart. It was scheduled for today but postponed b/c his creatinine went from around 5 to 7 since yesterday (it has been around 5 for a while now). They took him off the cytoxan several days ago so it could be a flare or due to the fact that he is not eating/drinking well.

It is tough--he is kind of "out of it" due to the heart meds (and ALL the other millions of meds they have him on), and I am at the point that I just want him to come out of the hospital--I'm worried he's getting too much treatment. There are lung Dr.s involved (lungs were bleeding), kidney docs, rheumatologists, cardiologists, and docs from medicine who are attempting to coordinate everyone else! They are disagreeing over whether to do the cardio version (but have decided to do it at this point) b/c he has to go on blood thinners and that is a risk b/c his lungs were bleeding (they are not now). UGH!

Anyway, I don't know what to do, but hospital scare me sometimes. He is in there to treat problems associated with WG, not get his heart fixed. We know he's always had a heart murmur but never any problems with it. I hate to see him like this, and am really worried he's not going to come out of it. When I read that around 90% of people end up living pretty normal lives, it makes me optimistic, but this is hard.

so that's the update....