2.24.2012

bad things come in 3's

so josh had a clot, then our basement floods the next week, then my stepdad passes away unexpectedly.

this is the story: so he has had a rare condition called churg strauss, they found out about this the day after Christmas. he went into the hospital for a bad case of pneumonia. to make a long story short, this condition made it so that he had to be fed through a feeding tube in his stomach, because the disease affected his swallowing muscles.

so a month had passed and home health was coming to his home to give him some physical therapy and speech therapy. nursing was also coming in to monitor his feeding and vital signs.

on the second week of feb, he had really high blood pressure, 200/185. so they returned to the hospital. the doctors there were so humble and felt as if he was better off seeing a variety of specialists. so they transferred him to the university of Utah.

when he got there, he was doing awesome. they allowed him to start eating again and they were really starting to find out more about his condition. I went to go see him on Saturday feb 11th and this is when I took this picture. he was very weak and tired from all the medications and from being malnourished, but all around he was feeling great.

well the next day he was having extreme pain in his abdominal region. they just treated it like they'd treat any constipated person. but then at 3 am on Monday the 13th he became unresponsive and had to be intibated and put on a ventilator.

so they did a ct scan of his abdomen and found that his bowel had perforated. so they rushed him into surgery.

since this is such a painful process, they wanted him to wake up from the surgery without any medications to wake him up. well ted wasn't waking up. so they started running several neurological tests and brain scans and they didn't show anything abnormal. but he still wasn't waking up.

so they finally decided to do an MRI. the results came back with a massive ischemic stroke that took over most of his brain. with this type of stroke he'd never be able to see, talk, or walk ever again.

so sadly the family all decided on Wednesday feb 15, to take him off the ventilator and move him to comfort care.

ted was around for about a day and a half on a morphine drip and just being comfortable. then at 6:30 am in feb 17th he took his last breath. he went very comfortably and did not suffer. but he had been suffering with quite a bit of nerve pain for the last month and a half, so he deserved not to suffer anymore.

he was such a great man and will forever be in my heart. I love you ted!

to see his obituary, follow this link:
http://www.utahvalleyfuneral.com/obituaries/Ted-Madsen/

I also made a tribute video of his life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBM1GO8DojA&sns=em

it has been very hard losing him, so please remember the whole family in your prayers.

1 comment:

allirasmussen@gmail.com said...

Hey Miss Ash,

I'm so sorry for your family and especially your sweet mom. I was planning on coming to the services and last minute my sitter cancelled and by the time I had found back up I would have missed it. But I have been thinking about you all. Give your mom a squeeze for me!