Dad in hospital

This entry is mostly for myself since it's been really crazy for the last few weeks.

I had Herceptin last Wednesday without any complications. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I've been in the ER once a week for the last 3 weeks. At first, Jun, a post-doc in the lab, got attacked while riding his bike to work. He just needed a tetanus shot and a fresh bandage. That was on William's birthday, Aug 2.

Then, the following weekend, Sam hit his head on the rotating ceiling fan. Because of the bleeding and dizziness, we spent about 8 hours in ER so that Sam could get 2 stitches, a tetanus shot, and CT scan. He got out the stitches a week later at the Howard County General Hospital ER.

This Monday Dad had a CT scan done at St. Joseph's hospital and was found to have bleeding the the brain. He was taken by ambulance to Hopkins Neurology Critical Care Unit, along with Mom. Dad had fallen earlier in the day and was walking erratically. Since Dad refused to call 911, the supervisor sent him home. Mom attended him, but he had a horrible migraine and threw up.

Dad arrived at Hopkins around 4:30 PM on Monday and has had a splitting headache since then. Another CT scan was done when he arrived, but the MRI was not completed until the next morning at 8AM. They showed that he had 3 areas that had bled-- 2 on the forehead and one in the back left. The CT yesterday did not show an increase in blood, good. The MRI did not show any tumors, although the MRI could not clearly show the brain behind the blood. Dad will need an MRI in about a month when the blood should have cleared on its own.

At this time he does not need surgery. He had an EEG done today which shows that he is having seizures, although we cannot see them visually. The seizures are most likely due to the blood irritating the brain. Tonight he will have an EEG along with a video camera to monitor him and the seizures. He's been given a new anti-seizure medication--fospheyntoin, which is given 2x daily.

I was able to observe Dad directly today when my aunt and uncle came to visit at noon. He responded very well to commands even though he was in severe pain. No pain meds were given to him at that time because they wanted to monitor his seizure activity without the meds. His head was burning up so we put cold compresses on his head, which made him feel better.

Tonight, Dad's response to commands were not as good. He has trouble wiggling his right toes, although he can still feel. There was a slight trembling in his right arm. The blood pool on the left side of the brain is bigger, and therefore more irritating on the left side. After a new doc checked him out, another CT without contrast was ordered for tonight to include Dad's spine. When either of his feet are pushed back, there's some trembling.

I met Dr. Quinones this afternoon. His lab is on the same floor as mine in CRB II. He took a look at the results on the test with basically CT and a dye. This was to determine any weak vessels in his brain. There seemed to be some slight leaking centrally, but it may have been "background". An angiogram, where a dye is administered in the artery in your groin, will be done tomorrow to see if there really is any leakage. A catheter was inserted today to better observe urine output.

I'll meet up with my aunt and uncle again tomorrow at noon and Mom and William at around 5pm. Dad's in the Meyer building, 7th floor.