The Surgeon’s Assistant came in and asked him his famous set of questions and Darren’s speech was very slurred and he had an extended time in answering if at all, and he would not stay awake. Darren ate about 5 bites of Oatmeal and shoved it away. He then proceeded to take off his magic brown socks.

The neurologist’s Assistant came in and Darren was still not answering correctly. I also had her take off Darren’s milk allergy. Next she said that they were going to take him for a CT Scan right away. So they did quick blood draw. They unhooked his EEG leads.

His Aunt & Uncle visiting him…

The Neurologist was pretty straight forward with the 3 scenarios that could happen:

1. If they got into surgery and saw blood under the EEG leads or around the EEG we would have to decide: do we stop and go home?
2. Do we go ahead with the resection knowing we are not 100% sure of where they would do the resection at and just hope it is the spot that will stop the seizures?
3. Do they drain the blood and continue on?

After discussion and knowing that Darren and I talked about this, I told him to proceed as he sees fit. He was real hesitant about moving forward with the resection.

The Surgeon came in next and pretty much said “I am sure the bleeding is between the skull and the brain. He showed us his scan. The dots are the EEG leads which are being mapped.

This is Darren’s brain right now. The surgeon let us share this picture.

So, they took him into surgery. In pre-op they said they said they would use the same incision. The surgeon did not “mark” his incision so we had to wait for that to happen. The surgeon was correct in saying that the bleeding (seepage) was from his surgery last Thursday and was general swelling and putting pressure on his brain. They removed the same piece of skull they removed last Thursday to put in a drain to relieve the pressure.

He got another room on the 9th floor (ICU) he seemed to get worse in his answers. The nurse asked him the date and he was stuck on the word “Long” the month “Long” “Where are You at?” Long? It was crazy. Then she had him repeat some words.

Say “tiptop” ….“tiptop”.
Say “January” …. “tiptop”.
Say “fifty fifty” …. “fifty fifty”.
Say “baseball” …. “fifty fifty”.

The neurologist came in and asked him questions. I was in the room and so was his Mom. The Neuro said “Who is in the room with you?” He stared and stared at us.

Neuro said “Is that your Mom?”
“Mom … Mom … Mom” he said.
“Who else is in the room?”
“She? She is my wife” he said.

He could not say our real names. The Neuro said he thinks it is transient, meaning it is temporary. He said to give it a few days. The surgeon agreed.

I gave his hand a squeeze and said “I love you.”
He said “I love you.”
I said “I have to get Nathan and take him home. Who is Nathan?”
“Nathan is my son!” -he added a smile too.