Do you know the signs of a stroke? Thanks to my Grandmother's incessant emails, I do.
Gawd, it's been quite a handful of weeks. Here's the short story, and it's still pretty long.
Tuesday, June 15th: Natalie received a call from Officer Goodale, our father's arresting officer. He found Dad trying to dislodge his car from a curb in a parking lot, Dad failed the field sobriety test, and the Goodale took Dad to the hospital to test his system for drugs. Dad tested positive for hydrocodone. Dad was disoriented enough to think that people he knew were in the room when they weren't, but he somehow remembered Natalie's cell phone number.
When Officer Goodale called Natalie, it was to tell her that they were about to take my Dad to jail. She told him, "He's recently had a head injury, do not take him to jail, he needs to get a CAT Scan immediately." Natalie and I left Raleigh not knowing if we were going to visit our Dad in a jail cell or in the hospital. Thankfully, Goodale listened to Natalie and instead of going to jail Dad was transferred to Presbyterian Hospital ICU, the CAT Scan having shown increased bleeding in his head.
It turned out to be the bleeding that had caused his disorientation. When Natalie and I arrived they asked him what year it was and he thought it was 1997. That far gone. The pressure on his brain was causing it to not work properly. They drilled a hole in his skull and started draining the fluid, and Natalie and I finally left the hospital at around 3am.
The next day when we visited he was mentally clear but still in a lot of pain. He remembered nothing about the previous day and a half, not even leaving the house. He just woke up in the hospital with a completely blank slate about how he got there, which had to be so scary.
That was pretty much it for a week...brain draining dark fluid into a vial, them measuring it, taking CAT Scans. At the end of the week they determined that he wasn't draining enough and they went into surgery--specifically, a craniotomy for the subdural hematoma. They got everything they needed to get out. My Aunt and Uncle were there (Dad's middle sister and oldest sister's husband) and they were such a huge source of support. I held everything together until the doctor said the surgery was a success and then I broke down and cried.
He went home two days later and has been recovering pretty well. He's not supposed to do much of anything but of course he's not listening to that. He has stopped drinking.
We had a bit of a scare today...I looked over at him in his chair and said, "Dad, look at me straight on." He did and I saw the left side of his face was slack, his mouth downturned and his eye a different shape from the other one. I said, "Get in the car, we're going to the hospital." I called 911 on the way and met with an ambulance in a parking lot. His speech was slurred, his left hand and arm were numb, and they gave him an oxygen tank and loaded him in. I followed the ambulance to the hospital and they gave him a CAT Scan. My Mom, Natalie, and Samantha were there too. Ten minutes later they had the results and the CAT Scan looked better than it had when he left the hospital. Apparently the slightly slack face and unresponsive left arm were normal things to be expected when recovering from brain surgery. They prescribed him some anti-seizure meds and sent him home. I'm still pretty wigged from the experience and hope they're right about his continued recovery.
Tuesday, June 15th: Natalie received a call from Officer Goodale, our father's arresting officer. He found Dad trying to dislodge his car from a curb in a parking lot, Dad failed the field sobriety test, and the Goodale took Dad to the hospital to test his system for drugs. Dad tested positive for hydrocodone. Dad was disoriented enough to think that people he knew were in the room when they weren't, but he somehow remembered Natalie's cell phone number.
When Officer Goodale called Natalie, it was to tell her that they were about to take my Dad to jail. She told him, "He's recently had a head injury, do not take him to jail, he needs to get a CAT Scan immediately." Natalie and I left Raleigh not knowing if we were going to visit our Dad in a jail cell or in the hospital. Thankfully, Goodale listened to Natalie and instead of going to jail Dad was transferred to Presbyterian Hospital ICU, the CAT Scan having shown increased bleeding in his head.
It turned out to be the bleeding that had caused his disorientation. When Natalie and I arrived they asked him what year it was and he thought it was 1997. That far gone. The pressure on his brain was causing it to not work properly. They drilled a hole in his skull and started draining the fluid, and Natalie and I finally left the hospital at around 3am.
The next day when we visited he was mentally clear but still in a lot of pain. He remembered nothing about the previous day and a half, not even leaving the house. He just woke up in the hospital with a completely blank slate about how he got there, which had to be so scary.
That was pretty much it for a week...brain draining dark fluid into a vial, them measuring it, taking CAT Scans. At the end of the week they determined that he wasn't draining enough and they went into surgery--specifically, a craniotomy for the subdural hematoma. They got everything they needed to get out. My Aunt and Uncle were there (Dad's middle sister and oldest sister's husband) and they were such a huge source of support. I held everything together until the doctor said the surgery was a success and then I broke down and cried.
He went home two days later and has been recovering pretty well. He's not supposed to do much of anything but of course he's not listening to that. He has stopped drinking.
We had a bit of a scare today...I looked over at him in his chair and said, "Dad, look at me straight on." He did and I saw the left side of his face was slack, his mouth downturned and his eye a different shape from the other one. I said, "Get in the car, we're going to the hospital." I called 911 on the way and met with an ambulance in a parking lot. His speech was slurred, his left hand and arm were numb, and they gave him an oxygen tank and loaded him in. I followed the ambulance to the hospital and they gave him a CAT Scan. My Mom, Natalie, and Samantha were there too. Ten minutes later they had the results and the CAT Scan looked better than it had when he left the hospital. Apparently the slightly slack face and unresponsive left arm were normal things to be expected when recovering from brain surgery. They prescribed him some anti-seizure meds and sent him home. I'm still pretty wigged from the experience and hope they're right about his continued recovery.