8 Weeks Today

It is crazy that it has now been 8 weeks since this journey began.  A nurse was asking what happened and it is unreal to think that Archie had an aneurysm on Labor Day, got coiled, had vasospasms, had a craniotomy, had angioplasties, got an external drain, got a shunt, they took the shunt back out and then put an external drain in.  A lot has happened over the past eight weeks, it is hard to wrap my brain around.  A lot of people are asking how I am doing and honestly I am fine.  The first hospital visit was hard, there was so much going on and it was all so foreign for me.  I mean I had heard of brain aneurysm but I really didn't know what they were.  There are so many medical things going on and I am so thankful that my mom is a nurse so she could translate/explain things to me.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, all we have to do is get rid of the infections and get that shunt back in.  That in my mind is a piece of cake, although with Archie there always seems to be some sort of complication.  We were talking to the charge nurse today who has been here for 15 years and she has not ever seen a patient leave and come back with an infection in the shunt.  I mean leave it to Archie...

Today Archie got moved to the POD room which is the step down bed from an ICU room.  He is still in the ICU but now he is in a room that the nurse to patient ratio is 3:1 instead of 2:1.  Archie really does not need the attention that a ICU room gets.  We are pretty self-sufficient for the most part: I am able to clamp his drain, unplug almost everything except for the IV (I don't mess with that!).  The other thing with the ICU rooms were that the respirators on the other patients were driving Archie crazy with all the beeping and the noise, there are no respirators in the POD.
 

It was a good day.  The neurosurgeon said that surgery will probably be next week.  He wants to wait for the antibiotics to run their cycle before he puts the shunt back in.  My sister came to visit and coerced him into going on a little longer walk this morning with some grumbling.  His appetite is getting better slowly, it is not stellar but he is eating something at every meal although, I am definitely pushing him to eat more.  This afternoon we went on another lap around the ICU and then we got moved.  This evening Renee brought us some yummy italian food for dinner!

I know I keep saying this but it is the truth, thank you so much for the continual thoughts and prayers.  I feel so much strength and comfort knowing how many people are praying for us. We are going to get through this.