Mom arrived at the hospital very early this morning (Thursday Dec. 6), to ensure she would be present for doctor's rounds and found Dad's room to be empty, cleaned and made up for a new patient...turning around to the 4-5 staff she said "Where is my husband!" Yikes! They quickly told her Dad was moved back to ICU/Trauma last night at 9pm after his CAT scan was read. He had a 25% increase in bleeding. Sounds scary, but he's ok. Moving back to ICU gives him more attention and the surgeon was in twice this morning. Initially, the staff didn't give him breakfast because they thought they might do surgery today...but the surgeon, after examining Dad, decided Dad was fine to wait until tomorrow morning. Mom reported that the surgeon likes that Dad's condition "has not deteriorated and that his body is liquefying the congealed clot while we wait for the aspirin to clear out. The surgeon said it's good we waited." So, surgery should be early tomorrow morning (7:15am). Dad's happy because he gets to eat AND more importantly we have a plan. Dad (like most of us) likes to know what the plan is.
The surgery. Spoiler alert if you're squeamish about medical stuff skip this paragraph! Mom reports that the surgeon will drill a burr hole and install one drain. After surgery, Dad will return to the ICU which is great because it's a 1:2 ratio (nurse:patient). The first 24-48 hours following surgery he will have to be flat in the bed. He will have a hole in the front of his head and hole in the back; basic physics, air in fluid out. Laying flat means it drains with gravity. The surgeon does not want Dad upright because fast draining could mean embolisms or air bubbles. So the first 24-48 hours Dad will really have to lay flat and behave. Prayers appreciated. Mom joked that they should tie his head down so he doesn't try to pick it up. I wondered about sedation. We shall see. After a few days they will remove the single drain and then we think he'll be able to move around a little. The surgeon may want to keep Dad a few more days beyond drain removal to observe him. Then Dad will have physical and occupational therapy and assess if he can go home or if he will need to go to a short term rehab facility to do therapy. It's not clear (for anyone in this situation) how quickly he will regain function in the left limbs/side sometimes it's quick and sometimes it's a few months. So, the steps after surgery are somewhat unknown...we have to see how Dad is doing after the first few days following surgery.
Prayers are appreciated. Thank you for reading my posts and not bombarding us with lots of questions. Again, I will do my best to keep everyone updated.
Meg
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