6/25/2010 7:30pm

I apologise to all you followers who have been waiting since Father's Day for an update, but there hasn't been to much to update you on. Dad has been improving steadily everyday. He does occupational, speech, and physical therapies twice a day Monday thru Saturday, and rests on Sundays. Monday Mom, Dad, and I are meeting with all of Dad's therapists at the same time to discuss his progress and learn the details of his continued therapy once he is released to go home. They have set his release date for Thursday July 1st!!!! All functions seem to have returned to normal for the most part. His speech is normal, his memory has improved, and other than some balance issues he's fine physically. We are so blessed that he has come through as well as he has considering where we were two weeks ago. Thank you again for all your prayers and support for our family during this time.

6/20/2010 5:15pm

Happy Father's Day to the most amazing, special, wonderful, loving, caring, sweet, goofy, handsome, Dad on the planet. We are so truly blessed to be able to celebrate this day with you!

Day 4 on the rehab floor has been pretty quiet. Sunday's here are a day of rest no therapy for Dad today. The 3 of us kids, mom and Jeremy's wife Heather were all here to visit dad at the same time today so we took him for a little trip down to the cafeteria, and outside for a short walk and some fresh air. It was a nice break from the inside of a hospital for all of us. Dad hasn't had a breath of fresh air for 20 days until today! Back to the daily grind tomorrow morning. Dad's day begins at 8am with occupational therapy. He washes and dresses himself under the supervision of his therapist. Then he moves on to speech, and physical therapies. He gets a breack mid morning then back for round 2 of all three therapies from 1-2:30. After 2:30 he is a free man (so to speak.)

Dad loves to have visitors but please refrain from coming up until after 3pm when his therapies are finished for the day. He's in room 1403... take the south elevators to the 4th floor and come around the circle to the left.

6/18/2010 9:30am

They moved dad to the rehabilitation floor of Parkview Hospital yesterday evening. He will begin intense physical, occupational, and speech therapies this morning. He tried to argue with the admittance nurse that he was well enough to go home and they should give his bed to someone who was worse off and really "needs" the therapies. Good try Dad but your not going home yet!

6/16/2010 9:45pm

Dad has been getting a little stronger each day. His memory, speech, and recognition are improving and he is ornery as ever! He went for speech therapy yesterday and started physical therapy today. His nurses even took him for a short walk down the hallway. He was given a chewing test today and is able to eat anything he wants now!!! The Dr. is planning to move him to the in-patient rehabilitation floor tomorrow. He will be there for several weeks until they feel his well enough to go home. If he continues to improve at the rate he has been he could be home in as little as two weeks. Please continue to pray for his mental health and continued improvement. Thank you all so much for the support you've given us.

6/14/2010 5:00pm

And the good news keeps on coming! Dad's been moved from the ICU to a regular room on the neuro floor. The neurologist thinks things are progressing fairly well at this point, and that he will do ok without the constant supervision. He is staying awake for longer periods and conversation is flowing a little easier for him. They did a swallow study this afternoon and determined he could handle a pureed diet of regular foods. He is in room 531 bed 2.

6/12/2010 8:00am

We got woken up at 4 o'clock this morning by dad's nurse who informed us that he woke up and decided to pull out the ventilator tubes in his throat and the feeding tube in his nose all by himself. When she went in to see what was going on he called her "Grandma." She said, "No, I'm still your nurse, I'm not old enough to be your Grandma." He was able to complete commands she gave him and when he squeezed her hands with each of his, his grip was equally strong on both sides. He asked her a few questions like, "What are you doing?" and "What do you want?" She said he is confused and has some difficulty comprehending but is awake for longer periods and is taking in full sentences. God has granted us a miracle!!!

6/11/2010 3:30pm

DAD WOKE UP!!! The neurologist came in a couple of hours ago and was expressing her concern that he had not yet opened his eyes and about that time his eyelids popped open. When she asked him to squeeze her hand he did and when she asked him to let go and he did. Shortly after he went back to sleep. She said this was definatly a good sign and a step in the right direction, but we are in no way out of the woods and we still don't know what kind of brain damage there is gonna be. They still have the tubes down his throat in case he needs help breathing so we don't know how much his speech has been affected. We are praying for more and more progress as the days go by. Please continue to keep him in your prayers as he has a long road ahead of him.

6/10/2010 9:15pm

Finally a positive sign... Dad has been breathing on his own for almost 3 hours! He's still in a coma and hasn't shown many signs of waking up but we'll take what we can get =) The ventilator tubes are still on in case he takes a turn for the worse but the machine has been turned off. The neurologist sounds hopeful but realistic. We still aren't sure if or when he'll wake up, and there is no way to tell how much brain damage there is. He is still in very critical condition and has a long way to go. We are taking it day by day and celebrating each baby step weather it's a flutter of an eyelid, wiggle of a toe, or breath all on his own.

Just Keep Praying!!!! We need him to wake up!

6/8/2010 9:30am

Dad went for a CT scan last night, the neurologist hasn't been in yet today to read the results but his nurse said as far as she can tell there isn't anything that looks too concerning. Around 1 o'clock this morning the nurse was able to turn the strong seizure medication off completely. Again, as far as she could tell he went seizure free through out the night. (The neurologist will have to read the waves to tell us for sure.) When I checked on him this morning she told me that his his stats had been stable all night with the exception of a bit of fluctuation with his blood pressure. Through out the day today they are gonna start to turn his oxygen down to see how much breathing he is capable of doing on his own. Their hope is to get him off the ventilator as soon as possibe. Things are headed in a positive direction but he has a long road ahead of him and there is still the possibility for major complications.

6/7/2010 3:00pm

The nurse came and woke us up at 4am to let us know that dad had some mucus in his airway and when they were sucking it out his oxygen levels dropped so they had to put him on a ventilator. Because he is on so many different medications, and the medication to control the seizure activity is so strong his body is having a difficult time regulating his blood pressure, oxygen level, and temperature. As of this morning the seizures have stopped but his blood pressure is too low and his temperature is too high. The neurologist told us they are having a difficult time regulating his blood thinners. If the level is too high then his blood is too thin and could cause bleeding in the brain. If the levels are too low it could cause more blood clots. They took him off the EEG monitor and are getting a CT scan to check for brain bleeds. They say he is in very critical condition and to just take it day by day. His chest x-ray came back ok (no signs of pneumonia) but we are still waiting for his blood work to come back to be sure.

6/6/2010 9:00pm

We woke up with some positive news, finally, the EEG showed that the seizures were starting to subside. The neurologist started to slowly reduce the amount of medication he was receiving and things started to go bad, his blood pressure dropped, his temperature spiked and his EEG showed signs of tremors (precursors for a seizure) So they bumped the amount of medication back up, put him on oxygen, and put a cooling blanket over him. As of now his vitals are back to normal and the tremors have stopped. It was pretty scary for a while but he seems to be stable for now. Please continue to pray that things progress in a positive way from here on out.

6/5/2010 3:40pm

The news is not great, Dad has been classified as being in a coma. They took him to get a CT scan before starting a different type of medication to control the seizures. This particular medication can cause the patient to be unable to breath on his/her own and would require the use of a ventilator. The Dr.'s are gonna start with a the lowest dose possible and give more as needed. Hopefully this will give his body time to adjust and elimniate this particular complication. His nurse sounds optimistic that this medicine will help, but we won't know anything for a while.

6/4/2010 10:10pm

Unfortunately there isn't much to update you all on today. The seizing in his brain hasn't stopped as of yet. The Dr.'s have continued to slowly increase his seizure medication to no avail. They hooked him to an EEG this afternoon and have continued to monitor his brain waves that way. We won't know what the next step will be until tomorrow when the neurologist comes in. For now he is resting as comfortably as possible.

Update as of 6/3/2010 5:55pm

Tuesday June 2nd Dad woke up not feeling very well. He had been complaining of a headache and stiff/sore neck for a day or two and had thrown up once Monday night and then twice Tuesday morning. Mom noticed his perferal vision was "off" then Tuesday morning so they decided, with his past medical history that it was best to take him to the ER to see about getting a CT scan to be sure. At the emergency room they took blood and determined that his blood thinner levels were low meaning his blood was too thick, and his sodium levels were also too low. At this time they also did a preliminary physical exam, the ER Dr. was concerned that he had had a stroke so the transfered him by ambulance from Whitley County hospital to Parkview Main. The Nerologist on call did another preliminary physical exam and said he thought dad was having small seizures and ordered some tests. About 20 minutes after the Dr. left the room he had a grand-mal seizure. They took him to the ICU in critical condition. They were able to get an MRI Tuesday evening and deternimed that he did indeed have a stroke on the right side of his brain. The stroke he had 2 years ago was on the left side. There is a chance that this one might have an effect on his speech, balance, and memory recall. The Dr.'s say there is no reason that he won't have as good a recovery this time as he did the last time tho. Wednesday night they did an EEG which moniters the brain waves. The results of this indicated that he is having almost constant small seizures in his brain. The Dr. thinks this could be effects from the large seizure on the electrons in his brain. They have upped his dosage of seizure medication to try and get these seizures to stop. If this doesn't do the trick they will need to put him under anestheia to try and coax the electrons to stop firing. For now we wait to see if the medication will do the trick.We are praying for patience, that the Dr.'s will find some concrete answers as to why his body wasn't absorbing the blood thinners and sodium, and that they will be able to completely stop the seizures. We ask for your prayers that he will have a speedy and full recovery.

We want to thank each and every one of you for your love, support, and prayers. We would not be able to carry the weight of this with out you all. We love you all so very much.

I will continue to keep you updated with any information through this blog.