Intensive Care
July 29, 2007
I just finished getting ready for work when I was about to head downstairs. I saw my dad coming out of my brother's room and thought well that's strange. I went downstairs, turned around to look back up and saw that he hesitated coming down. I asked if he was sick, he said yes, and I helped him down the stairs and on to the couch.
I asked him questions about how he was feeling, if there was pain, how he felt. He seemed spacey and mostly unresponsive. He started to say a word, but would hesitate and end up not saying anything. I began to ask yes/no questions to which he responded occasionally. He was a tiny bit out of breath after coming down the stairs so I thought hm, heart attack? He said/shook his head "no" to questions regarding pain in his chest and left arm. He managed to let me know about pressure in his head and that's when I put it all together. I had a feeling his impaired speech was the result of a stroke.
I woke up my brother and had him take Dad to the nearest emergency room. I would have gone along, but I was the only one with a key to let my coworker into the office. An hour later I got a call from my brother at the ER saying Dad indeed had an acute stroke and needed to be airlifted to a sister hospital since the initial one did not have a neurologist. I left the office to pick up my mom (who left work and was waiting at home) so we could carpool to the second hospital in downtown Ft. Worth. My brothers met us there shortly thereafter.
In just a couple hours he lost the small ability to say "yes" or "no" and couldn't talk at all. He could make sounds, comprehend everything said to him, and had complete motor ability, though. The neurologist gave him (something) in his IV and moved him to the Neuro ICU. Apparently, he tried to get up and walk soon after being admitted into the ICU, but the nurses weren't having that and had to restrain his arms. This did not make him happy one bit. While there, he was greatly frustrated that he couldn't talk to us. He was trying to tell us something, but no one could understand him. He certainly didn't like us constantly asking him questions or trying to assume we knew what he was saying. My mom asked him multiple times if he needed to go to the restroom, but he shook his head no and became more frustrated. I told everyone to stop asking him questions since he couldn't respond. Eventually, my mom asked if he needed to use the restroom and he nodded his head yes.
We were very worried about him. The doctors said he had two small hemorrhages, but neither were in his parietal lobe (part of the brain that controls speech). They were giving him steroids for anti-inflammation and scheduled him for an MRI and another CT scan the following day. However, he didn't get worse so I knew it wasn't life-threatening.
The next day, my oldest brother went to visit at 9:00a. My other brother called soon after I got into work to say my dad was doing much, much better and he was able to talk. I then got a phone call from my dad and he was (mostly) back to normal. To make the rest of this short, one of the hemorrhages put pressure on his parietal lobe, which is why his speech was temporarily impaired. The steroids helped relieve inflammation. Lastly, the bleeds are being slowly reabsorbed so there won't be a need for surgery.
My mother and him are obviously very scared that something like this could happen again. He's scared that he won't be able to talk more than he's scared of simply dying. This morning, four days later, he thought he was having another stroke, but the numbness, dizziness, and headache subsided after 30 minutes and all is well. He's hesitant to come home when he's tentatively scheduled to be discharged Monday. This is saying a lot when he'd always want to leave after two or three days like when he was previously hospitalized for his blood infections.
To bring this up a little bit, he's doing well and he should make a full recovery. He should be home tomorrow, unless they let him stay for a few more days (or if something bad happens). I guess now is not his time to go, which is good because we're not ready for him to leave us yet.
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