July 8th

He has been running a fever for a few days that tylenol controls but they don't know the source of the fever. They suspected pneumonia but yesterdays chest x ray came back clear. They did another one tonight. We will see the results of that tomorrow. They want all the tubes out of his nose and throat so they will do a temporary tracheotomy and put a feeding tube directly into his stomach. He is mostly breathing on his own but the vent is giving him a little "push".

Tomorrow they are going to do an EEG, some type of nerve stimilus test and a light test to help them determine what is going "upstairs". These tests aren't 100% but they hope they will give them some useful information.

Today, we personally felt like he was more "there" than previous days. His blood pressure went up while we were in the room talking to him, he moved his mouth a lot and had a few "coughing" episodes from the tubes. They say these things can just be reflexes but but today was the first time in 5 days we saw these things.

Tonight I can't sleep. His blood pressure was high when my mom & I left and his breathing was fast. They were drawing blood to make sure "nothing was growing" (ie; infection). Tonight, like every other night, I pray to God that he makes it! I pray for him, for all of us who are missing him and especially my mom.

My Father's Faith

About 7 years ago he felt something missing in his life. He found God. He initiated the RCIA process at the Catholic Church and made his confirmation at the Easter Vigil. His faith is strong. He teaches Religion and is very active in the Church. He is 100% sure of what's on the other side. His bible is in his hospital room with him, well loved, duct taped spine (my father loves duct tape and uses it on everything) hand written notes throughout and treasures and trinkets in between the pages. I have been reading his bible a loud to him when I get a chance b/c he likes to read it every morning (if you know of anything I should read to him, please leave a comment). We have been able to find some peace in his faith.

Catching up on the last few days.......

Obviously they have been extremely difficult and his condition is critical. They have no idea the extent of the injury to that area of the brain. They will only know when and if the swelling goes down. They have no idea how long that might take--- a week, 2 weeks a month? The neuro team turns his sedation off every morning to see what they get and it varies each day. They know his brain stem is functioning, they know he responds to pain, when his ICP (brain pressure) goes up they can bring it down by repositioning him which means he is feeling discomfort, he has a gag reflex, his pupils are the same size and respond to light, his breathing tubes adjetate the hell out of him----all positive things but they could mean nothing. His ICP fluctuates daily between 15 and 25. His blood pressure is relatively stable unless they move him a lot, bathe him, fuss w/his tubes......then he gets worked up. All the Cat Scans show nothing new since the initial bleed. That is also good news.

We are at the hospital constantly and visit him as much as we can. We talk to him, hold his hand, pray and gather strength from each other.

July 5th---Wedding Anniversary

July 5th was my parents wedding anniversary. Needless to say, it was an extra difficult day for my mother. He was supposed to have been released from the hospital on July 4th. I assured her they would have "their day" in the future.

July 4th--The Drain

On July 4th they called us at home and said they needed to put a drain and a monitor in his brain. It was a critical piece of his care that was missing. They had no idea what the ICP (pressure in the brain) was. Normally they would have put it in when they removed the piece of the skull but obviously they didn't b/c he was so critical. Today, he was only 2 days off the plavix (they like them to be off for 5 days before they do any surgery) so he ran a 20% risk of having a bleed on the "good" side of the brain. Yet, if they didn't put the drain in he ran the risk of the bleed getting larger and more damage being done. So we gave permission for the drain and the procedure went off without a hitch. They wanted to see his ICP below 20 and it was at 14 when they put it in. Earlier in the day when they brought his sedation down they did get some spontaneous movement from his right arm and leg and withdrawl from pain on the left side.

Emergency Surgery

So the Neurosurgeons took him away to remove part of his skull and told us it could take 2 to 4 hours depending on how things went. We held hands and prayed and cried and prayed some more. After 1 1/2 long hours they came back w/ a thumbs up that there had been no bleeding and things had gone well, that they would try to wake him in the morning and we would go from there. So we were hopeful---until we went in to see him and the nurse said worse case scenario he never wakes up and best case scenario he wakes up w/ some deficits, how big or small would have to wait and be seen. I can't even begin to tell you how terrified we were or how heart breaking it was to see him this way, breathing tubes, machines, cut, stapled, shaved (well not completely---but he had a mohawk he would not approve of).

The Bleed

While my Dad was still in the post op recovery room waiting for his room in ICU things took a turn for the worse. His blood pressure spiked and he was no longer responding. At this point they took him to CT to find he had a bleed in the area that was weakened by the stroke. They have no idea why the bleed happened but it did and it was sizeable and it was causing swelling. We were told that they would need to remove some of his skull to give the brain room to "swell". We were also told "if he bleeds when we do this, he dies". This was due to the fact that he had been on heparin for 3 days and plavix for 1.

July 2nd--Stent Surgery

On July 2nd at 1:30, my mother, my sister and I kissed him goodbye as they wheeled him away in his bed for this simple procedure and said we'd see him in a little bit. The Doctor said it would take 1 to 2 hours for the procedure. Turns out they didn't start until 3, finished at 4 and came out at 4:40 to let us know that everything had gone text book, better than they had hoped, he was awake, talking, responding and doing great. They were bringing him to ICU and if we went up we could see him there. Which we did, but after a while of waiting and being told his room wasn't ready yet my sister and I decided to head home to take care of our kids. My mom stayed, we planned on coming back later. At 6:00 I got an urgent call from my mom that I had to come back. Things had taken a drastic turn for the worse.

June 29th--- The Stroke

I started this blog for friends and family who want to follow my father's progress after his stroke on June 29th. My goal is to leave most of our emotions out of these updates and to not get too personal but to get to the point. I also thought when my father recovers----it will be a good journal for him to read.

So as I mentioned, my father had a stroke on June 29th. Thank God my mom was home and was quick to call 911. She saved his life. He was at the hospital within 1/2 hour of showing stroke symptoms. They were able to give him TPA (a clot busting drug) since it was within the 3 hour time frame. We watched in amazement as it worked it's magic right before our eyes (I wanted to add that his grandfather had this same stroke at 62 and his mother had the same stroke, although later in life). He spent the next few days in a room a step down from ICU. They found out that his carotid artery on the right side was open less than 1mm. They put him on heparin. My Dad's options were surgery to clean it out or a stent. He chose a stent. They decided to wait a few days to give him some time to recover a bit before the procedure. He was fine. The day he went in for surgery he was listed on his charts as "independent". Walking around, eating, writing, reading, talking, laughing, etc......no symptoms from the stroke other than some weakness.