October
7th 2019
I
was woke early with a phone call telling me that the hospital were definitely
going to operate and to get to the hospital as soon as I could.
I
spoke with a consultant from ICU, he told me about the operation and why Martin
needed it. The cause of the stroke I was told was due to a clot forming in his
carotid artery, and then shifted and travelled into his brain which then caused
the stroke, it had happened overnight and no chance for early medication to make
a difference. The right side of his
brain had been injured which affected his left sided mobility, and if he
survived his speech should recover but not his mobility. It was stressed that the operation was to
save life, as his brain was swelling and the more it swelled the more of his
brain would become damaged, and if it swelled onto the brain stem he would die. He told us that being young was not an
advantage to him, the brain shrinks as you get old leaving more space to allow
for swelling, in a younger person there is no space to allow for swelling. So he
went to theatre to have a craniectomy.
This
is when I finally called Jamie my eldest who was at uni, I had been putting it
off until I knew exactly what was going on as didn’t want him worrying on his
own without family there. I had told him
someone would come and pick him up if he wanted to come home. He didn’t wait for anyone to come and pick
him up though, he got the train. Though
he’d have been home sooner had he let someone come and get him.
It
was around 4 hours till I seen Martin and got news of his operation, it had
gone as it should, he was now on a ventilator to do his breathing for him to give
him plenty of rest. He was critical but
stable and they would monitor and decide when to remove the ventilator the
following day. Stayed until visiting was
over and went to collect Jamie from the train station before attempting sleep.
October
8th 2019
Martin
had a ‘stable and comfortable night’. He came round from the sedation and the
ventilator removed and was breathing well on his own. Everything was going to plan, and he was
answering questions by squeezing hands as he was so tired, he squeezed the
nurses hand at one point and didn’t let go, I told him to stop flirting so he
squeezed tighter with a smile on his face, absolute cheek. He then squeezed my hand, so tight though
that I had to ask him to stop, again he was smiling. I had to keep holding his right hand as he kept
trying to pick at the dressing on his head from the operation. The older 3 kids came to visit and spoke
briefly with him, under 14’s are not allowed in ICU, so Taran couldn’t visit. Not the best place for a child really as there
were many patients on ventilators. Again
we stayed until visiting was over and I went home, the kids still stayed at my
parents, it was as good a day as we could have hoped for and we were all really
positive, hoping now that the worst case scenario was going be no mobility on
his left side and long term stay at hospital for physical therapy.
October
9th 2019
I
called the ward first thing to see how Martin had been overnight, I was told he
had a stable night, but they did have to put a splint on his right hand as he
managed to peel off his dressing, and he had managed to say please and thank
you to the nurse. I drove to the
hospital for visiting times, and when I got there I was told he had taken a
turn for the worse, the swelling on his brain had not stopped, so more of his brain
was being damaged and they needed to put him back into an induced coma on the ventilator
to give his body complete rest. Later on when the nurse was doing her
observations, I could see in her face that something was very wrong, one of his
pupils was fixed and dilated and it was today that I was told to prepare for
the worst, I felt like I had been kicked by a horse, I couldn’t breathe, I wanted
to be sick but I hadn’t eaten for the last couple of days. One moment there was hope, then it was gone. Accommodation on site was arranged for me so I
was nearby if the worst happened overnight.
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