Friday, Day 25

This morning Archie was able to use the left side of his body- he wiggled his toes, fingers and was using his whole mouth instead of just his right side. The only challenge was he was abnormally sleepy this morning during the question part of the vitals. The nurse would ask him a question and he would answer, then he would fall back asleep before the nurse could ask the next question so the nurse would have to wake him up agsin. After the doctor came in he decided that the sleepiness could be from fluid buildup in his brain or the spasming getting worse. So in order to correct this they put a drain in his head to alleviate the fluid buildup and sent him for a CT angiogram to check the spasms. The CT angiogram showed that there was not change for now and that he has one again tomorrow morning.

After the drain was put in and the CT scan, Archie was up the rest of the afternoon. He was talking a little bit and just looking around. His right eye is still black and swollen shut but the left eye is now able to open and is only slightly bruised now. The right side if his face is still really swollen and bruised.

At one point this afternoon, one of the staff members offered me a cookie and I declined. A little while later Archie told me he would like a cookie. I said unfortunately he is not able to because he is on a liquid diet. He asked me how long it would be until he can eat solids and I said a day or two. He told me "that sucks" which I must agree.
Keep on praying, it is working!

Thursday, Day 24

This morning when I got to Archie's room he was sleeping away. Later when the nurse did some vital checks he noticed that Archie was weak in his left arm and his left side of his face is droopy. The doctor sent him for a CT angiogram again. The results were that the vasospasms have gotten more severe and that he might have had a seizure. They gave him anti-seizure medication and then sent him down for another angiogram.

The angiogram showed that he would need angioplasty in three of his vessels and that they were going to put some medicine in to keep the smaller blood vessels dilated. One of the vessels is one that received the angioplasty on Tuesday. The medicine they put in earlier had already worn off so that is why they are having to do the procedure again. So it took a while for everything to get done.
When he returned to the room he still was not talking with the left side of his face so some of his words were garbled. He did wiggled his fingers and squeeze the nurse's hand. For a little while he was trying to stay awake and didn't want to go to sleep. I left for dinner and when I returned he was snoozing. When the nurse tried to do some vitals he was sleeping away. Please pray for Archie.

Wednesday, Day 23

Last night and this morning it was a little difficult because Archie was on a ventilator since he was put under during the angiogram yesterday afternoon. It is hard to see your significant other sedated and on a ventilator. This morning during his vital checks he was wiggling his toes, holding up two fingers and opening up his swollen left eye on command.

When the doctor first came in she said the ventilator had to stay in because he was too sleepy. About an hour later the medication wore off and he was wide awake. He had work the tube out of his mouth for the most part and was mouthing multiple times to me to pull the tube out for him. He was pissed when I told him no. The nurse sedated him again and he slept for a few more hours. The doctor said to try to remove the tube once he woke up again so the next time he woke up we were ready. The ventilator was removed thankfully. He then immediately started talking a little bit. The nurse did some vital checks and he was able to say his name, the year and my name. When asked where he was he was a little confused because he said he was at his in-laws house. He did say his eyes hurt, the nurse reminded him that he had surgery and that his neurosurgeon gave him 2 black eyes. His quick response was "Allyson did that" so his humor is still there. After that he went back to sleep. After a few hours she did vitals again and Archie his name, that he was in Tyler, TX and that it was 1998 but he did know we live in Frisco. So that round was vitals he had a 50% ratio correct. He did start getting a little agitated so he did get some meds to make help him. When I went to dinner the nurse said she did vitals again and he said everything right: his name, my name, how long we have been married and what he did for a living. A little while after dinner Archie tried to get out of bed so he got some more meds. His neurosurgeon said there were no changes today. He did have a kidney doctor come visit him since his sodium levels were a little low. The kidney doctor assured me that since Archie has been in the ICU this is common and he is going to stay on top of his sodium.

Overall it was a very positive day, it was good to see him off the ventilator and talking. We shall see what happens tomorrow but considering what yesterday was like I am in a much better place. Archie still cannot have any visitors currently. Keep the prayers coming! Thank you for all the love and support for us!

 

Tough Day

Archie has been really agitated all day long. He was trying to pull out all of his IVs, messing with his stitches, taking off his gown and trying to get out of bed. After a little while, we figured out this was caused by his pain. So we were trying to stay on top of the pain but it was wearing off before it was time for the next shot. They changes his medication and that seemed to work well but it wasn't changed until 12ish.

Since he was so agitated the doctor got a CT angiogram and he said that one of the vasospasms were worse and another has lessened. The doctor said that he will probably schedule another angiogram to see what is happening up there. Then 1 hour later the nurse received a call that we were going in the the angiogram within 30 minutes.

They did an agioplasty om one of the larger blood vessels to keep it open. They also gave him some medicine to keep the smaller vessels dilated and open. They put him on a ventilator as a preventative measure. We expect him to sleep the rest of the night due to the anesthesia.
Moral of the story - please pray.

Three Weeks Today

Today marks three weeks, which is crazy. When I went in to see Archie he had huge swollen black eye and the right side of his face was very swollen (the black eye was less swollen and less purple by the end of the day). He has stitches from the top of his head to his ear but they did not have to shave his head which is good. That is where they did the surgery yesterday, on the right frontal lobe. He slept the day away. He was awake 3 times during the 12 hour period that I was here. The first time he looked at me and want to hold my hand. The second time he was scratching his bandages on his head, I told him not to do that because there is a drain from the surgery (which was removed a couple of hours later). He wanted me to take a picture so he could see it. When he looked at the picture he was trying to figure out why he had a black eye on only one side. I had to explain to him that he had surgery on that side and he seemed pretty concerned but I explained to him that it would go away. During this time the nurse did his vital signs and he knew my name, that he hung tvs for a living, his name, the month and year. The third time he asked where his cell phone was, I told him that Matt had his phone. Then he asked for his computer and his iPad. When I asked why he needed that stuff he said he wanted to know what the rangers score was from last night.

I checked on him basically every hour for about 10 minutes and for most of the times he was snoring away, even though according to Archie he does not snore. Hopefully tomorrow he is more awake.

Post Surgery

This is an extension of the earlier post...

Let's back it up to last night when it all began.  I went to my nephew's seventh birthday party - pirate themed, which was a great time.  I picked up Babe's chicken (via Archie's request) on the way back. We all enjoyed some yummy fried chicken and sides.  Jennifer and Jerry left shortly after.  He then proceeded to try to go to bed, but he was very anxious since he had had a headache the past couple of days.  He asked me to come back up at six a.m. so I could see him before the CT angiogram that was scheduled for the morning.

I arrived at six and found him awake.  He said he went to bed around 3:30 a.m. and had not slept well.  Jennifer and Jerry showed up and we just hung out in the room until he was taken for the scan around 8:00.  He had the CT scan and everything looked good.  He began to eat breakfast when he suddenly experienced a horrible headache with neck pains and clogged ears.  We were all kicked out of the room and he was taken for another CT scan.  After the CT scan, Dr. Finn called me and told me that there was additional bleeding so they scheduled an angiogram and surgery immediately following. I was able to walk him down and hang out with him until the angiogram began.  He was disoriented by asking random questions and calling the nurse (whom we have had before) different names.

I was able to go to mass because we expected the angiogram to last an hour and half to two hours. However, his stepfather came in fifteen minutes later and pulled me out because the doctor wanted to talk to me and have me sign consent forms.  We discovered the angiogram was complete and he was being moved into surgery.

He was in surgery for four hours, which was good because we were told it would take between four to six hours.  They clipped the aneurysm successfully and put a drain in his head to alleviate the pressure in the blood accumulation in the brain.  We were told this was a very complicated and intricate process because he was still spasming.  They will be monitoring the spasms and hoping they will cease soon.  They will also be making sure the clip worked and the bleeding has stopped.

I was able to go back and see him, but he was very looney - he asked me if I was going to work, if John Rollins was here to see him, and asked me to remove his restraints.  He put in restraints because he was trying to remove the drainage tube and the bandages on his head.  They have limited visitors to myself and his mother, which we are only allowed to go back and see him for short amount of times, limiting his stimulation.  He will remain in ICU until the spasms subside and we are sure the clip has worked. No visitors are allowed until I have posted on FB or you have texted me.  Tomorrow we  expect him to be very sleepy due to the anesthesia.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery!

SURGERY

This morning Archie got another CT angiogram and everything was fine. Just a few minutes later he started getting a horrible headache and some pain in his neck again. He went downstairs for Another CT scan. They found out that he is bleeding again. They took him down for an angiogram to pinpoint where the bleeding is coming from and then straight to surgery for a craniology to fix the bleeding. Please pray!!!

The Third Weekend

Saturday started out a later than normal because I slept until 7:00 am instead of my normal 5:00 am wakeup time.  Since Archie's mom was in town I decided to snooze a little later, I got to the hospital around 7:45 and Archie had just woken up so both of us got to sleep in a little.  That morning Archie napped for about 2 hours and then got up for a walk around the hallways.  After lunch he went for another walk and sat in the chair for an hour.  Archie had a bunch of visitors throughout the day.

Tomorrow morning we are going to do another CT angiogram.  Depending on what the CT says Archie might have an angiogram afterwards.  During the angiogram they will decide their plan of action depending on the vasospams so they could do an angioplasty, try some different drugs or do nothing and continue to monitor the spasms.  Please say a prayer for Archie.

I left for a few hours to attend my nephew, Logan's 7th birthday party.  It was a pirate party that included a scavenger hunt, walking the plank, a treasure chest piñata (that my crafty dad made), pirate gear, a cookie cake and presents.  It was nice to get a break from the hospital since Archie's mom is in town.  Below is the cookie cake, sorry for the random pictures but Archie does not want to pose for any pictures.

* Thank you to Roland, Lavonne, Mackey, Camie, Amber, Renee and the Tucker family.

Friday, Day 18

This morning started off with Archie going for another CT angiogram. He went for 2 walks this afternoon. The doctor came in around 3:30 pm with the results of the CT. He said we have some good news and bad news. The good news is that some of the early vasospasms are lessening. The bad news is that there is a new vasospasm in the Basilar vessel(the main blood vessel that supplies the blood to the brain stem). There is going to be another CT angiogram scheduled for Sunday to see how the spasms in the basilar vessel are doing. If the vasospasms are getting worse then they will schedule another angiogram where they will go through his groin to look at the spasms and if necessary do an angioplasty while in there.  My definition of an angioplasty: it is where they put a small balloon in his blood vessels to keep them open (wikipedia definition can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angioplasty).  Archie was bummed when he found out the news but he did much better than when he received Monday's news.  He thought since the headache had been around for a day that the news would not be good.  He of course did not expect that but overall he handled it well.

Just reminder that we are limiting visitors to 15 minute increments to ensure he does not have any overstimulation.  He does still want to have some visitors because he does need the distraction from the monotony of just seeing me so please keep on coming because it brightens his day.

* Thank you Jennifer, Shane H, Mark Mackey, Corey and my dad for coming to visit Archie.

Thursday, Day 17

Sorry that I didn't post last night, I went home and planned on posting but did not know the internet password.

Wednesday night after my "early" post there was some additional drama, that teaches me to post early huh?  Below is what happened:

My car got hit in the parking garage :(

When I left to get some dinner for us, I found a note on my windshield with a lady's name and phone number (I am thankful for that).  But when I called her all she did was tell me that she hit my car. After a moment of silence I said that I would get an estimate and let her know what that it.  Since then I have called and gotten a time to take my car in on Friday morning, I rather do it sooner rather than later.

 

Thursday was a different kind of day for Archie, he started having a headache right above his left eye and it was there pretty much all day long.  It was not a severe headache by any means but since he had not had one in a few days it was different. Archie did go on two walks and sat in the chair for a little while.  He is definitely enjoying having visitors because it is giving him a distraction from the time that is slowly ticking away throughout the day.  The doctor came in at 8:30 am yesterday morning which was the earliest we have ever seen him but he had nothing to report beside the CT scan on Friday.  Archie is having a good time chatting (flirting) with all the nurses up here, he has enjoyed all the nurses besides Super Nurse overall.

 

We shall see what the CT angiogram tells us on Friday morning.  Archie does not have a good feeling about it since the headache appeared but we shall see.  If it does not show anything positive that just means that we will be waiting till Monday or Tuesday for the next CT scan.  Overall, since his talk with his critical care doctor he has been prepared for being here 4 to 5 weeks, hopefully it will not be that long and  she will be a hero.

 

* Thank you to Bethany, Mom, Jimmy Sattler, Jimmy Sanchez and Emily for coming to visit Archie.

Wednesday, Day 16

Wednesday was another good day. Archie went on two walks (one time he made two laps) and he also sat up in chair for over an hour. He is now trying to stay up during the day so that he can hopefully sleep through the night since he sometimes has neighbors that are loud. The days are getting a little long for Archie but overall he is doing well considering he has been in the ICU for so long. He is using his computer more but he is still not interested in watching tv since focusing on the tv can cause some headaches. His headaches are pretty mild and almost gone. We haven't killed each other yet so I think we are doing pretty good overall considering we have been in the same room the whole time.

Depending on the CT scan on Friday, if the vasospasms stop then surgery will be scheduled for the beginning of next week. We asked the doctor today if the vasospasms stop could they start back up later on and he said it is not likely.

Tuesday, Day 15

Today was a much better day. Archie had a long talk with his intensive care doctor last night and it made a huge difference in his attitude.

He was awake for most of the day today. He went for 3 walks today which is the most he has ever done, sat up in the chair for an hour, and sat up for breakfast. The next CT angiogram is scheduled for Friday so we are waiting until Friday for some information about those dang vasospams.

This morning my mom stayed with Archie while I ran some errands. I went home for the first time in two weeks and got a bunch of little stuff done like: mail, drove Archie's truck around the block, grabbed a bunch of items that we didn't know exactly where we could find them, made copies, grabbed clothes, etc.

* Thank you to my mom and Chad for coming to visit Archie.

Twos

It is exactly two weeks Monday that we went to the hospital. It was exactly two years ago Monday that Archie and I became husband and wife. It is kind of surreal right now knowing that we are in the hospital on our anniversary. Archie told me he was sorry but he did not get me a gift, I said the only gift I want is that he gets better. Archie's mom tried to arrange for dinner from a nice restaurant be delivered but Archie and I both agreed we would rather go out to a nice restaurant when he gets better. A nice steak dinner in the ICU doesn't sound very romantic.

Above are anniversary flowers we received from my Aunt Laurie and Uncle Chuck

Archie got a CT scan today this morning and we had to wait until this afternoon for results from the doctor. The doctor informed us that there is a new vasospasm in another blood vessel which means that we are still waiting for the vasospams to subside. The doctor did tell us that considering the amount of blood in his brain he thought Archie would be in a lot worse shape than he is. There will be another CT scan on Friday most likely.

After that information Archie was very grouchy. He unfortunately thought that since he had not had a headache in a couple of days that meant that they were subsiding and he would be able to have the surgery soon. Thankfully, some friends stopped by and talked to him for about an hour.  I normally try to limit the amount of time for overstimulation purposes but since I could see this was providing a distraction so I didn't care. After the staff change and charting time we brought him back some dinner and he was in much better spirits. I left around 9:30 pm because I was just wiped out from the day, sorry the I waited until Tuesday to update everyone.

* Thsnk you John, Nancy, Flynn, Norma, Kyle, Joshua, Joe and Emily for coming to visit Archie.

The Second Weekend

Saturday brought another day where he spent most of the day awake with a few catnaps throughout the day. He did go on a lap around the ICU so he was able to see my nephews for a couple of minutes. They had created some artwork for him. The doctor said they would schedule the next CT scan for Monday morning. His headaches are lessening slowly so that is a plus.

This morning I went to the Dallas zoo with my mom, sisters and nephews.  We went on the monorail and checked out the African Savannah.  The boys also traded some nature items they found in for some other fun items, in the children's area there is a place where you can bring items and they give you certain amount of points to spend.  So the boys brought in shells, sand and other items they found at the beach and in exchange they got shark teeth, sate and other rocks that they picked out.  I have attached some pictures below, I would put other pictures up but Archie is not feeling up to any pictures.  I took another little break from the hospital before Archie's mom and stepfather left town. They leave tomorrow afternoon to head home so they can watch our niece while his brother and his wife go on a two week Disney cruise. Poor Archie is stuck with me for the next week.

                                                      The boys checking out a cheetah

                                                    The giraffes in the African Savannah

                                  You can feed the giraffes, we didn't but still saw them up close

                                             
                                                               The boys driving the jeep

                                             The "pengunas" that Brody Loves

Sunday brought a day that Archie was a little tired, he slept until about 8:30 am. He then had three visitors for about an hour afterwards. After the visits he slept until 1 pm. I think the past couple of days without naps have wiped him out. Archie did watch about 30 minutes of Dallas Cowboy football which is the first time he has been interested in watch any sporting event on tv. It has been challenging for him to wear his glasses to focus on something, generally he gets a headache after to much concentration. His mom and Jerry left around one to head back to Wichita Falls.

* Thank you to Jim C, Mindi & Chris, Kevin & Traci, Mel & Dave, Brian D, Kyle G, Jerry F, Mendy & David, Jess T, Bob & Sheryl for coming to visit Archie.

Friday, Day 11

Friday brought on another day that Archie did not take any naps, hopefully he will sleep through the night. He got out of bed to sit in the chair, sat up for lunch and went for a walk. He is not as grouchy as yesterday which is a plus. Archie said his headache and neck soreness has lessened quite a but. The doctor said there was no change and nothing to report. A CT scan will take place in a couple of days.

Super Nurse was back again, thankfully his last day because I do not think my feet can take it. The one good of Super Nurse is that he is able to Archie and his mom's questions:
1) How will we know when the vasospams are done? The headache will go away
2) Can the vasospasms stop and then start back up again? No
3) When they have surgery how will that work? They will cut a half moon shape in his head, cut the same shape in his skull, clip the aneurysm, put the piece of skull back in and then sew him up.
I did get out for a little while to get a pedicure while Archie's Mom and Jerry stayed with him. It was a nice break and I was able to get gas for my car during the day as well.

* Thank you to Dave, Jennifer C., Hillary, Karen, Casey, Margaret & Brad for coming to visit Archie.

Thursday, Day 10

The CT scan took place at 8:00 in the morning. The results were that there were additional vasospasms in new blood vessels. Additionally, we found out that the coils did not work and that there is additional blood getting into the aneurysm so once the vasospams are done Archie will be having surgery where they will go in and clamp the aneurysm.

I thankfully handled the news well, I didn't even cry. I think I got the tears for the week out on Monday when we found out they were going to do another angiogram. The news is not good but I am to the point of taking it one day at a time and i am not ready to worry about the surgery yet.

Today Archie spent more time awake than any other day. He usually crashes out in the morning and afternoon but he just took a couple of cat naps. I am interested to see if this will cause him to be tired tomorrow. Archie only got out of bed once today, he stood up so the sheets could be changed. He said he was not feeling it today. He told the nurse that tomorrow he would get up 3 times (sitting in the chair and going for walks). We shall see how that works out. He did just tell me that he is going to go to sleep and i can go home early. He said his headaches were tolerable today so he only took pain meds a few times. Archie is getting tired of being here and wants to know when he will get out, he is tired of the doctor saying we ares going to have to wait and see, take it one day at a time. We just don't know when the vasospasms will subside and until that happens we are just in a holding pattern which is driving him a little crazy.

Super Nurse was back again today so we got to stand all day long which is fun. We also found
out he will be back tomorrow. I do find humor in this now, my sister has prayed since he
showed up that we get another nurse and yet he still prevails. There is one positive thing
that came from Super Nurse and that is that he reassured Archie that vasospams are expected,
he has treated a bunch of patients with aneuryms and all of them have had vasospams so that
made Archie feel better.

Today Archie's mom came back into town from Wichita Falls to stay through the weekend. I think
I am going to make a couple of outings while she is here, my sisters and mom are on me to get
out of the hospital. Since she is here I am going to take full advantage of that, I really
have been just hanging out at the hospital all the time.

* Thank you to Jimmy Sattler, Jeff, Chris B, Jessica T. and Corey for coming to visit Archie.

Wednesday, day 9

On Wednesday, Archie was more awake during the day but was not feeling very well in the morning. He did not sit in the chair for breakfast and hardly ate anything for breakfast. He did eventually get up for lunch and sit in the chair. He appetite has decreased quite a bit since coming to the hospital so after this hospital stint he might be nice and trim. Thursday morning he is suppose to have another CT.

I did find out my FMLA leave (Family Medical Leave Act)was approved for the full 12 weeks but it will be unpaid. Hopefully I will not have to use the whole time but wanted to go ahead and get it in place. I have one week of sick time for last week and one week of vacation for this week. Archie and I joked that we are having a staycation this vacation.

Today was another day with Super Nurse but he threw out a new fun rule, that we could not sit at all in the room, not even on the cooler. We got new neighbors the previous day and they were wanted to sit down as well since they saw us sitting so they tried to sit on the floor which is a big No No. So began a long day of standing around his room, let me tell you from experience that standing up for roughly 11 hours is no fun. I can honestly say that I was thankful that Supeer Nurse was gone and I do not like that man. We created a bunch of theories about him- he has a military background which is why he is a stickler for rules, etc.

* Thank you to Patty, Matt, Chris, Jimmy Sanchez, and Emily for visiting Archie.

Tuesday, day 8

Tuesday was another sleepy day. Archie really was not interested in getting out of bed but the nurse made him go for 2 walks and get out of bed into the chair but otherwise he just wanted to sleep, I think it might be some leftover meds from the angiogram on Monday.

We were graced with our first male nurse. It is funny because the other day I was wondering what one would be like. Well, it was not a good situation. He is a rule follower and somehow I have been able to bend the rules a little because the nurses have been so nice. Archie nicknamed him "super nurse". There is a chair that is in Archie's room for him to sit in during meals, well the nurses have allowed me to sit in that chair even though there is a no sitting rule. Our friend "super nurse" informed me that I was not able to it in the chair because it is for Archie only. I had brought a cooler with ice for Archie so I didn't sit in the chair but sat on the cooler throughout the day. Super Nurse ws not flexible about most things but we did try to bribe him with cookies but it did not work. The sad part of the story is that he was back on Wednesday. We had another male nurse that night and he was super sweet so at least I know not all male nurses are on my list.

* Thank you to Patty, Dee, and Matt Mackey for visiting.

Monday, one week later

Monday began with a CT scan of his brain to see how the vasospasms were. The results were that the vasospasms changed to a little stronger so they scheduled an angiogram to go in and see what the change is and see if anything needs to be done. Thy found out the spasms moved to moderate but the nice thing is that they were not severe and they did not have to do anything. The rest of the day Archie was sleepy due to the anesthesia.

* Thank you to Jessica T, Emily, Chad, Tandy, Norma & Flynn for visiting Archie.

The first weekend

The weekend brought a calm weekend of monitoring and watching Archie. The vasospams continued as well have constant headaches and a soreness of his neck. He was getting in the chair and going for walks throughout the days. Nothing would be done until Monday, a CT scan was scheduled for the morning. He slept away the days.

* Thank you to Kevin & Traci, Melissa, Emily, Alex, David & Mendy, Christopher, Aaron, Jim, Jimmy Sattler, Mark Mackey, Shawn, Jessica, Masters & Kallie, Jennie, Rusty and Alana for visiting Archie.

The next couple of days

Wednesday brought a day of rest for Archie, he pretty much slept most of the day. He had a bunch of visitors throughout the day but was pretty wiped out. He still has his personality and sarcasm intact. He was only showing some short term memory issues, asking the same questions over and over he was complaining about the bed saying it was causing his neck to be sore. We have since realized that the neck soreness is due to drainage from his brain not the bed. He got the catheter out and got off some medications so some progress was made.

Thursday began with Archie telling me that " he needs to talk to the doctor because he he needs to be released today." He was more awake this day. This was the first day that they got him up out of bed to sit in a chair for breakfast and lunch, he was suppose to it in the chair for one hour. For breakfast he lasted 30 minutes before he was worn out. He told me "I want to get into bed because my head is f*#^ing killing me" so he was done with that. For lunch he stayed in the chair for an hour, he was worn out but since his head was hurting I made him stay in the chair.

Friday was the day that I slept through my alarm by an hour which meant that I was tired and got to rest but it did throw off my whole morning schedule. I generally get to the hospital by
6:00 am so that I can check and make sure he does not need meds, go to the bathroom, need a
drink, etc. Before I get kicked out of his room for an hour for shift changes and "charting".
During this hour I normally go to chapel and the waiting room so that I can check up on all
the other patients families in the waiting room, we have met some nice people and we usually
chat and ask how everyone is. So I missed that opportunity, so I got ready and did my prayers
at the house before getting to the hospital. That morning he headed down for a CT scan of
his head to see what is happening. We found out that small vasospasms had begun in his head
so it would again be the wait and see pattern to see if they got worse or better. He did get
out of bed twice and go for one walk( even though he did anything he could to avoid it the
previous day, he said it wasn't that bad).

* Thank you to Jennifer & Derek (for Justin Beiber), Jennifer C, Flynn & Norma, Dave, Jim, Cody, Trey, Emily, Jess and my nephews, Jessica & Brian, Kevin & Traci, Shawn, Lindsey, Matt, Chris B, Alex, Chris C, Darrell Bruce, Ricky, Chris, and Heather & John for coming to visit Archie.

What happened?

This seems to be the question of the hour.

Archie and I went out of town for the weekend to visit our friends the Schmidts for a baby shower and a church festival. We got back home around 12:30 pm. We worked in the yard and then he worked on his computer.

He eventually feel asleep in the bedroom, I heard him snoring really loudly, unlike anything I have ever heard from him. He was snoring so loud that I could not hear the tv in the living room so I had to close the bedroom door and turn up the volume. After a little while I could hear him in the bathroom talking and trying to make himself throw up. When I went in the bathroom to find out what he was doing he kept muttering to himself saying I have to make myself sick and I have a terrible headache. He was pretty non responsive to me so I thought he was sleepwalking and that he either had a migraine or he was dehydrated. So I put him back to bed because I was thinking maybe if it was a migraine that it would go away if he went to sleep (I do this when I have migraines). Archie never has headaches so I thought he probably has a headache or migraine. He went back to sleep and started that horrendous snoring again. After a little while I heard a thud from the master bathroom. I ran in there and saw Archie lowering himself to the floor from his hands and knees next to the bathtub. There was also a scratch on his nose that was bleeding so I think he fell down.

I was shaking Archie and yelling at him but he was unresponsive at that time so I called my mom and she said to called 911. I called the paramedics and they came and took him to Centennial Medical Center in Frisco.

We arrived and waited for tests to be run. All Archie did was keep talking about his headache, needing to throw up and was basically out of it. When the doctors were asking questions he made no sense. His business partner, Matt came and met us and helped make phone calls and directions. After about 2 hours they figured out that he had a brain aneurysm and they wanted to Careflight him to Baylor Dallas. I got to ride along which was our first helicopter ride.

What is a brain aneurysm? Here is my definition: It is where there is a weak spot in the wall of a blood vessel in the brain. The weak spot can cause a balloon type growth where the wall is weak and blood will accumulate there instead of going down the blood vessels like it should. You can go to: http://www.brainaneurysm.com for more information.

Once we got to Baylor Archie's mom & stepdad Jerry (drove in from Wichita Falls), Chris Bishop and Brian Plemons met us up there. They did some scans on his neck and head to make sure he did not hurt his neck during the fall. Eventually around 3:00 am he was put in the ICU room to await a doctors evaluation At this point jennifer, Jerry and I went home to get a couple hours of sleep and pack clothes for the next couple of days. We only slept for a few hours because the nurse said she did not know when the doctor would do rounds, it could be as early as 5 am but who knows.

The next day the doctor showed up and said that Archie would have an angiogram that morning so that they would be able to see the aneurysm and try to correct this issue. The two options where putting coils in the aneurysm or surgery where they cut open the brain and go clip the aneurysm. For information about the coils go to: http://www.brainaneurysm.com/aneurysm-treatment.html.

After talking to the doctor I lost it, I started crying and could not stop. There was a really nice nurse that gave me a little pep talk. She was telling me I was doing really good but i needed to be strong for Archie and make sure to not cry in front of him so that he did not get worried. After that, I pulled myself together I was able to be the wife he needed when he was getting ready for the angiogram.
They were able to put three coils in the aneurysm to try to keep the blood from going in the aneurysm and keep it going down the blood vessels. It is pretty amazing though because they went through a blood vessel in his groin all the way up to the aneurysm in his brain.

Afterwards we had to just wait to see what would happen. We were waiting to see if vasospasms would take place. My definition: Vasospasms are basically spasms on the blood vessels that cause the blood vessels constricted where blood cannot get through. If the spams are severe enough they can cause stroke like symptoms. For more information you can go to: http://www.brain-aneurysm.com/cv.html.