[n david]

Requesting prayer for my father, who is 85 and has been in the ICU the past couple of days.

Last week he began having intermittent pain in his chest and arms when walking short distances, but he "didn't want to worry anyone" and just put it off. Monday morning my mother took him to urgent care and they recommended he make an appointment with his cardiologist.

That evening it became worse and more persistent, so my mother took him to the ER. I didn't get the initial text, but woke up at 1am and saw the missed texts and calls. I went to the hospital until a little after 3am when he was moved to a regular room.

The issue is he's retaining a lot of fluids in the "3rd space", meaning tissues and stuff. He's very bloated from the fluids. His kidneys aren't functioning. The lower chambers of his heart is functioning at about 15%.

They gave him meds to reduce the fluids but that caused his blood pressure to drop too much so they stopped that. Wednesday evening I had to turn around on my way to church and rush to the hospital because the rapid response unit came into the room due his BP falling below 50/something. They put him in ICU where he's remained stable but unchanging.

Just a few minutes ago, my sister called me and said they spoke with the Dr. His kidneys are failing and Dr is concerned that his heart won't take dialysis well. They can't deal with his fluid retention with meds because those meds cause his BP to tank. And the fluid retention is causing incredible stress on his heart.

When he first arrived, they were taking blood samples to check his Troponin (heart enzyme) levels. ER Dr said 12 was normal. Dad came in at 75. yesterday he was well past 800. This is due to the stress being placed on his heart.

My siblings, mother and I met yesterday to talk about the next steps -- specifically if things don't improve and he passes. We went over the life insurance and his wishes for end of life care. We started planning the service and have most of that done as well.

Pray for my mother and siblings.