Stroke

With my hCG levels going down, everything was started to look good again until I received a call from my sister on Nov 16th. My brother, Mark, had gone to Houston with my dad the day before to repair his right arm that he broke during a fall he had two nights before at his home. After the surgery he did not wake up out of his anesthetic. As the hours passed my dad started to panic and the surgery staff (he was at an outpatient surgery center, not a hospital) did not know for sure what was going on. It took 9 hours before my brother woke up and when he did he exhibited all the signs of stroke. His right side was paralyzed and the could not speak. We weren't even sure he knew who or where he was as he was very violent and they had to sedate him. He was quickly transferred to St. Joseph Medical Center in downtown Houston.

For 4 days they kept him sedated because each time he came out of sedation he was violent and tried to pull the tubes out of him (he had a feeding tube in his nose he kept pulling out). The MRI and MRA showed massive damage to the left side of the brain which controls not only the right side of the body, but also speech and cognitive thinking. He had the worst kind of stroke, a massive stroke that usually results in the person being in a vegetative state. We thought he would never come out of it, but on Tuesday a miracle happened. Mark came off his sedation in a more calm mode and they did not sedate him again. He was able to focus on everyone and he even nodded 'yes' and 'no' when asked simple questions. He was responding! The neurologist was impressed. He said this was a very good sign. Because he is so young (44) he had a greater chance of recovery.

On Wednesday they removed the feeding tube because he showed he could swallow on his own and he was moved from the ICU to a regular room. Since Wednesday he has had good days and bad days. He knows what happened to him and you can see the sadness in his eyes. But he has lots of family and friends who supply support daily. He works with three different therapists - physical, occupational (to re-teach him how to do life's daily needs like bath, brush your teeth, etc) and speech. He has a very long road ahead and all our lives have changed forever. At the present he has to have someone with him 24/7. The goal now is to get him moved back to Victoria which has a great rehabilitation center. With lots of hard work there is a small chance he can learn to walk again on his own and speak again (although never the same as before).

This has been so very hard on my parents to see their son in this state. Please keep Mark and my parents in your prayers and hope that Mark is able to progress quickly.