Congestive Heart Failure

[jennyj1979]

My father had been at a rehab facility for about 2.5 weeks as of yesterday. My mother and I had both noticed in the past couple of days that things were becoming worse and worse for him. He was retaining a ton of fluid (belly, legs, neck and even some in his face). His O2 stat would not go above 87-89 on 4 liters of oxygen (this was two days ago). Yesterday my mother went to see him, and he was even more swollen, and his O2 stat wouldn't go above 80. Mind you he is not intubated and nor does he wish to be intubated ever again. The doctor came in to see my father yesterday and said he had no choice and they were sending him to the hospital. When we got to the hospital they were examing him and had him on 5 liters of oxygen. His O2 and heart rate stats were both not good. His O2 barely remained at 80 and his heart rate was 130-140 bpm. The respritory therapist asked him what his wishes were and we all made it clear that we did not want to see him intubated again. So they decided to use the bipap machine. Turns out that he is in congestive heart failure and he also has pneumonia On the bipap machine his O2 stat fluctuated from 88-91, which was better then previously. His heart rate also decreased to around 100 bpm. This morning they have taken him off the biPap machine and he is breathing with the help of nasal O2. However i am not clear on how many liters of O2 he is on. Also his blood pressure was pretty low.

I have a copy of the radiologists report of the xray taken two days ago and it states chronic CHF and cardiomegaly, no active disease. Yesterday when he had the xray done at the hospital they stated he was in CHF, had pneumonia and fluid in his lungs and around his heart. Can the results of an xray or someones condition change in less then 24 hours?

Anyone have any thoughts or if you can provide any insight that would be great. My father has been battling this stuff for almost 10 years. Besides COPD he has Congestive Heart Failure hypertension diabetes, Parkinsons Disease (I am sure I am missing a something.)

Thank You~~~~~