Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Next Morning

January 26, 2013

I loved the comfort of my own bed Chuck was making the kids breakfast.  He started making breakfast a while ago every morning bacon and eggs and biscuits.  He'll change it up to sausage or other meats on occasion.  The kids love it.  I didn't smell the bacon I didn't think much of that.  We had kennel dogs coming and going so Mike and Chuck were handling that.  I had not even thought of the kennel.  Didn't remember we even had one at this point.  The Strathory Dr we had seen in Strathory called to see how we were doing and told Chuck to keep on checking on me every 1/2 hour.  So there he runs up the stairs and down again and it seemed like he came right back.  A 6'10 200 and something pound guy running after you have a brain injury sounds like a herd of elephants.  I would fall asleep again fast once he was gone.  My scan from the night prior had been sent to London to be looked at. After checking on me a couple of times Chuck received a call from a Neurologist in London.  He told him that I had fractured my skull. There was bleeding in the brain that they were concerned about. They asked him if he was ok to get me to London ASAP as safe as possible.  They could also send out an ambulance.  Chuck said he would take me in.  He came running back up the stairs. Told me we were heading to London that they want to look at me.  Really??? Do we have to go, last place I wanted to go.  I was finally not vomiting.  His look on his face told me I had no options.  I did not feel well at all Chuck helped me get out of bed and down the stairs I couldn't walk on my own.  I went downstairs and said hi to the kids trying to put on my tough Mom's face.  I guess I failed because I looked into the windows from the van I could see Chuck hugging them and they were all crying.  I think Sandy was coming to help with the kennel and take the kids to their house for a while for real this time.  The ride to London went better than I thought.  We arrived in London Chuck took me in a wheel chair into the hospital for registration. 

The last time I was there was with my mom registering my Dad.  I was wheeled into emerge where a Neurologist was waiting to see me.  He was the same Dr my Dad had seen when he arrived.  I had a flash back of him in my Dads face yelling at him to try to say his name.  My Dad struggled and tried and mouthed "Bill” It was the hardest thing to watch.  He began vomiting and he couldn't move so we helped him and cleaned him up.  I knew I had to share my time with the rest of my family since only two people were allowed with him in that area at a time. It was really hard to leave I had made a promise to my Dad that I would not leave him. 

I was asked a series of questions and he shone a light in my eyes a few times which felt like little blades scratching and needles piercing in behind my eyes straight to the middle of my brain.  They told us as soon as there was room up on the 7th floor they would move me up there to a better bed.  For the time being we would wait in emerg.  They did send me in for another CT scan.  I remember this one but not the one from the night before. I slept most of the day they did a good job at drugging me.  I felt bad for Chuck just sitting there, not his thing at all.  Around supper time they moved me up to the 7th floor.  The room had a nurses station in the middle and around 2 sides there were patients in beds.  There were three nurses in there at all times.  At some point Chuck went home but I don’t remember when that was.  When they moved me into the bed I couldn’t believe the comfort compared to the bed from emerge.  Almost felt like home.  Except for the fact the curtain was open and the light from the nurses’ station was a direct path to my eyes.  I asked for my curtain to be closed.  They said sorry we have to watch you all night.  It has to stay open.  The hooked me up to monitors and put compression stockings on with these things that would pump up and release.  To stop blood clots.  Every hour they would ask me questions and everyone else in the room questions so there was constant talking in the room.  I told them that my head hurt really bad they said they had me on pain killers I was also sick to my stomach.  So they gave me gravol by IV.  I was able to get up to go to the bathroom with help.  The sound any sound was terrible. The ended up wrapping my eyes with a pillow case and put ear plugs in my ears that helped for a while.  After my hour sleep was up they were back asking me my name, where I was? How old I was? What date it was? What color is the sky? Etc.  Then they would touch my arms legs feet and ask if I felt that.  I felt like the smart kid in the class.  As everyone else in the room didn’t know much I felt bad for them.  Later I found out I was in the room because they were waiting for the slightest change and ready to open up my skull to relieve pressure.  See when you bruise any other part of your body there’s room for swelling in your brain there isn’t.  So they need to be very careful. 
I had no desire to eat and it wasn’t ok for me to anyway.  I was on a liquid diet feed by my IV pole topped off with pain killers and gravol.  The next morning they said it was ok for me to be to go into a private room.  They moved me and told me to keep my plugs in they covered me with blankets.  Once they stopped moving me I took them out and was still covered.  They talked about how the Neurologist thought I shouldn’t know anything and to keep a close eye for changes, the swelling was bad.  I thought wow…crap…I was in that room bc I belonged there.  Not so I would feel like the smart kid in the class, kinda scary. 

No comments:

Post a Comment