Recap

Beginning note-When I asked Aunt Mary if it was okay for me to start this blog, she said "as long as you don't put any ugly pictures of me up because I might want to go on e-harmony one day!"

Wednesday, June 3rd- Aunt Mary gained 10lbs overnight so she called the Dr and had blood work completed. The Dr thought the blood sample was contaminated because the BUN and creatinine were so high so she sent Aunt Mary to the ER to have more blood work completed. When she got there, a nephrologist (kidney doc) was waiting for her. Once they re-drew blood and realized that she was in kidney failure they sent her to Victoria at about 9pm.

Thursday, June 4th- Has Hemosplit placed (dialysis cathether) and has dialysis for about 4 hours in the morning. Has kidney biopsy in afternoon.

-we found out that she has been having lots of nausea and vomiting and horrible headaches (which are signs of kidney failure) which is why she was taking so much motrin (which made the kidney failure worse). When your kidneys fail, you get high blood pressure because of all the extra fluids and that can cause bleeding in your brain/clots in your brain(aka-stroke).

Friday, June 5th-At 4 am she wanted to use the bathroom so Aunt Melinda called the nurse in to make sure it was okay for her to get up and when they tried to get her up they realized she couldn't move/feel her left side. They immediately called a stroke alert and took her to get a CT scan. Immediately afterwards she went to ICU for careful monitoring. They found a hematoma on her brain and a blood clot on the right occipital lobe. She also had an MRI later that morning. Now it was a time to just let her rest and make sure that her brain didn't swell and cause a seizure. Her blood pressure was also really high, so they put her on continuous IV medication to keep it down (to prevent any more strokes). She also is having blurred vision, even with her glasses (probably due to the stroke).

Saturday, June 6th- Stable. She has regained feeling in her left side, but still cannot move anything on the left side. Aunt Mary is very concerned about Ryan. They attempted to give her medicine by mouth, but she was so scared that she was going to get nauseas and vomit, so she wouldn't swallow it. Blood pressure is doing well with the help of IV meds.

Today, Sunday, June 7th-Yeah! Lots of progress! She ate some vanilla pudding for breakfast and drank some water. For lunch she had 1/3 cup stuffing (like thanksgiving) and 1/3 cup macaroni and cheese and some tea. She asked me if I could find her some chocolate pudding earlier that day, so I bought some and left it in her room at lunch. When I came back at 2pm one of the puddings was gone! I asked her about it and she said that her call light didn't work and so she opened it by herself and ate it! We figured out the call light situation quickly though! She looked the best I've seen her at the 2pm visit. PT had just come and sat her up on the side of the bed and exercised her arms and legs. She sad she was exhausted and had difficulty balancing when they sat her up. She does understand that it is going to be a long road to recovery, and doesn't think she will be able to do it, but we've told her over and over that specialist are going to teach her how to do the things she used to be able to do. She seemed satisfied with that answer.

She gets teary-eyed when we tell her about all the prayers and phone calls we've been getting. When she found out that one of the churches prayed a rosary for her she started crying. She is very thankful for all the prayers. The only time she has broken down and really cried was today when Aunt Melinda and I were in at the 2pm visit and she said something like 'I can't believe this, but I have to say this because it is reality- I have had a stroke, I had a stroke. I will never forget when I heard Stroke Alert, Stroke Alert, Room 482-that was me.' We comforted her and talked her through it and she is doing better now.

Aunt Mary's Concerns-making sure Ryan is okay, making sure that she's not there by herself, making sure that she doesn't have any more bleeding in the brain, and making sure that she gets to see her parents and family.

Doctors concerns- make sure that there is no more bleeding in the brain, rehabilitation for her arms and legs (to make sure she doesn't lose muscle), and her kidney function. The doctors still do not know why this is happening. They said that this is not the normal pattern for a stroke victim. They are looking at auto-immune disorders and have already started her on steroids, just in case it is auto-immune.

She's had dialysis 3 times (not sunday) and the Dr will decide daily if she needs it based on her lab work. Her BUN and creatinine have gone down about 60% so that is great news. She is still making urine, which is awesome too (you never realize how important that is)!

Ryan is adjusting to staying with different aunt, uncles and cousins. He stayed the weekend with Aunt Sharon and her family and went swimming and had some 'kid time'. He has a baseball game monday night (we think) so he is staying with my parents (yvonne and sam) for a few days. The good thing is that Aunt Mary hasn't lost any memory so she is able to tell us his schedule and where to find things like bills and other important documents.