July 9th

Today was a long and stressful day. It started w/ a phone call to the ICU where they told me his blood pressure was still very high and had been throughout the night. The nurse said it would be a "busy" day. She told me he had been off the sedative Propofol for 24 hours and that may be the cause of the high blood pressure (I'm talking 180-185). They needed to keep him off sedation to do the EEG and the other tests. They only managed to get the EEG in today. Once they did that they put him back on the sedative a bit and when I left he was resting comfortably (or at least he appeared to be). His blood pressure was 135-150, his ICP (brain pressure was good) and he was calm.

They also managed to get a Cat Scan in today. The results of that were encouraging. The cortex looks good (this is the outer part of the brain that controls memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language and consciousness). The bleed is already smaller in size and being reabsorbed by the brain. The ventricles have less fluid around them and have decreased in size. His overall ICP (brain pressure) is lower. Today he responded to pain everywhere except his left hand. That said, while this is encouraging, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. The results of the EEG will give them a better idea of what's going on, although, as I mentioned before, it's not 100%. Still watching his temperature and for a secondary infection. More tomorrow.

Thanks for all the continued thoughts and prayers, phone calls, text messages and Rhonda & Ali---thank you so much for dinner and dessert the last few nights. You have no idea how much that helps after a day at the hospital.