Category: General
General junk (better than calling it “uncategorized”)…
This is Darren blogging again before another surgery…
Thanks for the prayers. Let me tell you I have some WiCkEd scars on the top and side of my head. Cuts going all over the place. These cuts and scars really leave me with quite the headache. The top/front of my head kills me at times, then I have the nurse give me some meds. I have a mesh-type beenie to cover my scarred head where the scan devices on the inside/outside of my brain. The mesh helps keep the my brain “leakage” under control.
Early Friday morning about 3 o’clock or so I woke up in a daze like state, pretty confused and my head hurt like crazy. I knew I needed to go to the restroom. When I opened my eyes, it was hard to see and by this time in the week I had become aware enough to recognize that I had some kind of wires or something hanging – coming out of the top of my head. This- I also had a tremendous headache. Stood up out of bed and the cords from my skull yanked my head down. I grabbed the ones on the left side and pulled them straight out. The next thing I know there is repeated drops of blood all over me and the floor. I felt them as they were being jerked out of my skull. I started screaming bloody murder.Four nurses came in after my wife yelled for help. They cleaned me up and prepped me for a CT scan.
Over the weekend, it seemed as though my brain was healing. Started to be more awake and could think better. But I have also had a tremendous headache that I am continually taking pain medication for.
Jaw is killing me because of the holes in the side of my head that are drilled are on the jaw muscle. Chewing is difficult and painful. Opening my mouth is next to impossible, but the doctor is giving me directions on how to do exercises for my jaw when I leave the hospital.
Monday morning is the next surgery and that is to take out the leads including those that are frayed and broken inside my skull. After doing this I will blog about the options.
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Monday morning now. The doc just came in and let me know I am #2. So, about 11:00 or 12:00 or 1:00 before they take me away and another hour before they chop me back open.
The Plan as of Right Now (by Sherry)
Wow! What a day!
As of 6pm the plan is to remain here through the weekend. No surgery today. They (doctors) analyzed data all day. They think his incident this morning was a seizure. They were texting each other in between cases and there is some minimal bleeding inside his brain. They do not want to risk any more damage to his memory or possibly cause paralysis. So after going back and forth all afternoon the plan is eat, rest and get blood levels up over the weekend. They also will continue monitoring him for more seizures.
Monday, find an available operating room and reopen the holes and remove the EEG leads that are still in place and see how extensive the bleeding is. Then they will close him up and get him back on his meds and by this time next week he will be home.
He will wait a month or two and come back here for surgery #2 and #3. They have data that is supporting that these procedures will stop his seizures.
- Surgery #2 involves putting leads inside the brain again but only on the left side. Wait for seizures like we did this week.
- Surgery #3 will be removal of the part of the brain that the seizures start from.
There is a small chance that they will go ahead with #2 on Monday, but the data really doesn’t support that would be ideal.
So there you have it! We will just keep moving forward but at a slower speed.
He took several bites!
He has to sleep with all the lights on so they can video him having seizures.
This is his monitoring screen before this morning
This is his monitoring after the incident this morning.
Bud is remaining optimistic now that we have a plan. We will just keep chugging along.
Well Bud is getting a bath from a pretty nurse right now. (his exact words)
Still trying to get all those cards to him. The staff here is kinda nimbly today. Hahaha!
Debra reading a card she brought.
Will blog more when I come back or the doctors change their mind.
Still Going! Given Hope Again (by Sherry)
Dr Uysal just stopped by the room to chat with Darren. He and Dr. Camarata have been talking all morning.
They will still go in and remove the broken leads and depending on the damage they will either go ahead and remove the leads on just the right side and make the holes on the left bigger and have leads only on the left and keep going on the process (with surgery #2 and#3) or they may tell us that Darren needs to heal from this trauma and come back for the last two surgeries at a later date.
So they have changed their suggestions. Darren told the Doctor he did not want to give up now! He told him he wants to keep going. So there you have it!
We don’t have a scheduled surgery time yet, but it will be today that they go in and survey the damages.
The process is done. (by Sherry)
Dr Uysal was just here. Darren pulled out 5 leads and of those 5 there are 3 broken, which means they will be taking him back into surgery today and removing them all and closing him up and outing him on full meds again. We are done with this process.
They could not risk him pulling out the leads again.
Since there are some broken leads there is a chance there is some damage that is not on the CT scan so they will have to be careful.
So Darren is upset and very sorry that it happened there was even a suggestion that what he was doing when he pulled them out was having a seizure. But I guess that doesn’t matter right now.
The Catalpa Chronicles 