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!!!