Edema Picture

Here is a picture of the edema. The white part around the circle is what was causing all the problems. It is called "mass effect."

Pre-Surgical Images

This is the image of the aneurysm in an angiogram pre-treatment

I don't have the ability to photoshop this here, but there is a cirlce in the middle of his brain, that is it. This image was taken in Jan. 09.

You can really see it here. The lower left blurry thing is his shunt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!!!!!

Jordan Li Jade is 18 today!!!! Everyone give her a birthday shout out!!

We arrived late last night. Dad opened his eyes and looked toward me, but his eyes apeared to be in REM. He wouldn't squeeze my hands. The nurse had just given him Norcan right before we got there which is Vicodin really. We spoke for a really long while and she thought that this was a normal process for him. He was on steroids for such a long time and Lopes said that he would be a lot weaker once he stopped getting such high doses of it and that he wanted to see him come out of all this on his own. He really needs encouragement, but it is so hard to tell how is when he is all doped up on meds. So, I told her I would like to see him on Tylenol and to stop the Norcan and she agreed.

Today he is sound asleep. His HR was about 130 when I got here and his respiration's are 28. The nurse gave him Xanax to slow it all down, so that is why he is out. He wouldn't wake up to me or look at me. I asked the nurse today if he would have an MRI before he left on Monday to go to the "special" hospital and she said that it wasn't really medically necessary and that he may not be ready to go yet. He is on an insulin drip and they can't accommodate that there. But, it sucks because he really needs to get out of ICU. He needs to be in rehab and he needs the positive reinenforcment that he can't get in this type of setting.

I wish I had great news to report, but he is just sleeping. Hopefully at some point today he will give me some indication that he is alert enough for me to read some stories to him. Thanks for those of you who took the time to do that. I know that it will be very helpful in his recovery process.

Huge Tree

Off to Chicago

We are going to Chicago this afternoon. Hope to miss the snow and be on the road by about 4. I don't have much to report. They did take him off the vent and he breathed on his own for 2 hours. Then his blood pressure went to about 160 so they put him back on it. They say that is normal for someone who has been on the vent that long. He just tires out and needs to get stronger. Shouldn't be too long I would guess!!

I will update more later.

BTW!! Any last stories before tomorrow when I will read them to him, email them to me today please!!

Scottssister1@gmail.com

Thanks!

Thursday

Im confused.

They were going to ship dad to that specialty hospital today. When the social worker called dad's insurance company to approve it, they said that they won't approve the transfer until 7 days after the trach procedure. So, that puts us at Monday. BUT..he may not be medically complex enough to go there on Monday. ???? WTF???

TODAY, he is "complex" and if he were to go today, they expected him to be there 4 to 5 weeks. But if we wait until MONDAY, he isn't sick enough to go??

Someone shoot me.

He has pneumonia again. So, they put a pic line back in for antibiotics. He has however, passed his breathing tests the past 2 nights so they are supposed to take him off the ventilator today.

He also has his days and nights confused. He was alert and moving all around last night, but he is sleepy and disengaged again today. I still think he is pissed about the trach. Oh well, he will get over it.

His CT scan looked good. His ventricles in his brain are smaller. He still does have swelling from surgery. We aren't sure how long that will take to go down.

I'm excited to go kick his ass this weekend and read him the stories that some of you wrote. Thanks a bunch!!

Story

Kelly Shoning:

I think this story deserves to be shared as it just cracked me up. I still laugh about it and have shared it with people. Pretty sure you heard this at the same time I did, I believe it was after Doris' (his mothers) last April, when we were sharing stories about her. He said he was 15ish and dating a girl down the street who was 13 and your grandma didn't like this because she was young. He told your grandma he was going to go see her and your grandma said, "no you're not". Jim said something like, "yes I am, try and stop me". He said Doris' face turned bright red and she did some karate move on him and they went flying and he ended up on the floor. His dad Dick heard the commotion and came in, saw Jim on the floor and said, "what happened in here?" Jim said, "she did some karate move on me" and Dick said, "oh yeah, I should have warned you about that". This kinda shows where Jim might have got the humor gene from.

I was there!

I think we should try to see if there is a street in Des Moines that exists where he didn't date someone on it.