Dad was better today. More alert, ate properly, managed to drink through a straw. We also went out for a car ride for about an hour and a half.
The lung report looks good - his cough seems to be caused by an irritation in his throat, rather than any infection in the lung. The inflammation in the brain looks large - managed to have a look at the CAT scan - and the inflammation shows up as a mass of black squeezing the right ventricle. The doctors have increased his dosage of steroids - hopefully that has an impact quickly.
Friday evening is very very eagerly awaited.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Some of the results came out yesterday itself. The chest x-ray looks reasonably OK. The physician feels that there could be some fluid between the lungs and the chest cavity (nothing inside the lungs) but the respiratory doctor feels that that too might not be there. Its just his cough that is a little troubling but the lungs seem to be holding up fine.
The CAT scan has been viewed and reported by the radiologist. Not directly by the neurologist yet. Hopefully that gets done today. The radiologist feels that while the bleed has gone down i.e. not so much blood in the brain, the edema (inflammation inside the brain) seems to have gone up. That is not good at all. Especially since 16 days have elapsed since the stroke. Let us see what the neuroloist says and if he changes Dad's medication. Dad's current state, though is in line with increased inflammation - very drowsy through the day, inactive, not speaking much. Not good.
So dust out your Gods, guys and start praying big time.
The CAT scan has been viewed and reported by the radiologist. Not directly by the neurologist yet. Hopefully that gets done today. The radiologist feels that while the bleed has gone down i.e. not so much blood in the brain, the edema (inflammation inside the brain) seems to have gone up. That is not good at all. Especially since 16 days have elapsed since the stroke. Let us see what the neuroloist says and if he changes Dad's medication. Dad's current state, though is in line with increased inflammation - very drowsy through the day, inactive, not speaking much. Not good.
So dust out your Gods, guys and start praying big time.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Dad did not sleep too well on Saturday night. Was sleepy through the day today.
Other than that he had a good day - he had lots of visitors; Rohit came with his parents, Jiju came with his and Alka Didi and Arun Bhaiya also dropped by. He also got lots of calls - and felt really good about them.
Tomorrow is a big day for him - he has a CAT scan, chest X-Ray and blood test - all waiting for him - early in the AM. Hopefully all that goes fine.
Our travel plans also kick off in earnest with the Air India teams in Pune, London and Chicago offices.
Other than that he had a good day - he had lots of visitors; Rohit came with his parents, Jiju came with his and Alka Didi and Arun Bhaiya also dropped by. He also got lots of calls - and felt really good about them.
Tomorrow is a big day for him - he has a CAT scan, chest X-Ray and blood test - all waiting for him - early in the AM. Hopefully all that goes fine.
Our travel plans also kick off in earnest with the Air India teams in Pune, London and Chicago offices.
Rajju's Specs
Dad is changing. The father I knew is not the father I know. Apparently when you have a left side bleed, the right side starts driving behaviour. The right side is more emotional and Dad has been emotional roller-coaster rides.
The last couple of weeks he has been very sentimental. He would hear Rakhi's name and start crying, he saw Nidhi and he had tears. Anu called on the phone and Dad howled. No more. He got really angry with me yesterday - I came in slightly later than usual and he sulked. I went out to have a chat with the doctor and he made sure that I knew he was angry. And then he got lovey-dovey with Mom. And Rajju took off his specs. Dad kept thanking Mom for taking care of him and Rajju kept taking his specs off. Rajju then went off to have a chat with Dad's room mate. Roommate (Kidney and gall bladder stones) was sunning himself on a nude beach. Only the beach was the hospital bed. Rajju plans to leave his specs behind at home on Sunday.
Other changes with Dad include obsessing on a point - even after we understand what he is trying to say; he keeps repeating it. Maybe we are not really getting it.
The doctors and nurses have assigned us this task to get him to take deep breaths. Pneumonia is one possible after effect of a stroke. So the next couple of days are going to be dedicated to Swami Ramdev.
The last couple of weeks he has been very sentimental. He would hear Rakhi's name and start crying, he saw Nidhi and he had tears. Anu called on the phone and Dad howled. No more. He got really angry with me yesterday - I came in slightly later than usual and he sulked. I went out to have a chat with the doctor and he made sure that I knew he was angry. And then he got lovey-dovey with Mom. And Rajju took off his specs. Dad kept thanking Mom for taking care of him and Rajju kept taking his specs off. Rajju then went off to have a chat with Dad's room mate. Roommate (Kidney and gall bladder stones) was sunning himself on a nude beach. Only the beach was the hospital bed. Rajju plans to leave his specs behind at home on Sunday.
Other changes with Dad include obsessing on a point - even after we understand what he is trying to say; he keeps repeating it. Maybe we are not really getting it.
The doctors and nurses have assigned us this task to get him to take deep breaths. Pneumonia is one possible after effect of a stroke. So the next couple of days are going to be dedicated to Swami Ramdev.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Getting home
The day was dedicated to trying to get back home. Figuring out the various options available and closing on one.
Options are:
1. Flying out of Toronto with Jet
2. Flying out of Toronto with Austrian Airways (where Mom, Dad had their original return bookings)
3. Flying out of Chicago/ Newark with Air India
Sheens put in a word with a senior guy in Air India Europe - and we almost closed on that one before the booking guy realised that AI flies only Jumbos out of here and getting into Business class involves climbing stairs. You no climb them on your own, you no go Business Class.
Chittaranjan Uncle came up with a plan to get Dad back under a special medical quota. Apparently Air India takes four economy seats and converts them into a stretcher. The task today is to work towards that. Saturday/ Sunday of course are deterrents. But yes, there is definite progress towards that.
On another note, one of my schoolmates from Bokaro, Vishy, got in touch - he was mentioning about a friend who had a very similar experience - and said that the entire journey was pretty much "heart-in-mouth". Flew back on British Airways and had to go thru hell on the layover in London. The other thing that came out in the discussion with Vishy is that these cases are not uncommon. Parents come in to the US, get seriously unwell and kids start networking - trying to chart the trip home. Guess that should have been obvious to me the moment we found out that AI has a quota for that.
Veens is here today and has been up and about since the moment she came in - cooking, pulling Rajju's leg (commenting on his sexy walk), doing grocery shopping and lifting up spirits. Usual angel stuff.
Keeping fingers crossed guys - hope to see you all in India soon. Insha allah.
Options are:
1. Flying out of Toronto with Jet
2. Flying out of Toronto with Austrian Airways (where Mom, Dad had their original return bookings)
3. Flying out of Chicago/ Newark with Air India
Sheens put in a word with a senior guy in Air India Europe - and we almost closed on that one before the booking guy realised that AI flies only Jumbos out of here and getting into Business class involves climbing stairs. You no climb them on your own, you no go Business Class.
Chittaranjan Uncle came up with a plan to get Dad back under a special medical quota. Apparently Air India takes four economy seats and converts them into a stretcher. The task today is to work towards that. Saturday/ Sunday of course are deterrents. But yes, there is definite progress towards that.
On another note, one of my schoolmates from Bokaro, Vishy, got in touch - he was mentioning about a friend who had a very similar experience - and said that the entire journey was pretty much "heart-in-mouth". Flew back on British Airways and had to go thru hell on the layover in London. The other thing that came out in the discussion with Vishy is that these cases are not uncommon. Parents come in to the US, get seriously unwell and kids start networking - trying to chart the trip home. Guess that should have been obvious to me the moment we found out that AI has a quota for that.
Veens is here today and has been up and about since the moment she came in - cooking, pulling Rajju's leg (commenting on his sexy walk), doing grocery shopping and lifting up spirits. Usual angel stuff.
Keeping fingers crossed guys - hope to see you all in India soon. Insha allah.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Did not turn out to be a "Drowsy Day" after all. Dad was up and about - yup, he had his first bath yesterday. No, Teens, that does not give you a license for not having a bath for 10 days.
Rajat and I turned up slightly late - we had some running around to do - with the Billing department asking us to show "good faith" and Dad had got quite antsy by that time. Kept showing Mom his watch and looking at her quizzically.
We had a long call with Rajat's Dad who explained to us that it was important that we get Dad back as soon as possible - there is a posibility that bed sores and hand/ leg contractures develop if he does not do too much exercise.
The main aim now is to try and see if we can do that - the journey is long, really long.
Rajat and I turned up slightly late - we had some running around to do - with the Billing department asking us to show "good faith" and Dad had got quite antsy by that time. Kept showing Mom his watch and looking at her quizzically.
We had a long call with Rajat's Dad who explained to us that it was important that we get Dad back as soon as possible - there is a posibility that bed sores and hand/ leg contractures develop if he does not do too much exercise.
The main aim now is to try and see if we can do that - the journey is long, really long.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Day 10
He has been alternating between good days and days he virtually sleeps through. Today was a good day.
He had breakfast on his own - dropped a lot of it on himself but he did manage to plow through quite a bit of the porridge. A big change from when he had tubes going through his nose just late last week.
He swallowed all his tablets - and managed to keep them down. He had a long sitting in a wheelchair - close to two hours. Not bad, eh. Quite a bit of progress for one day.
And we are fast learning the art of communicating thru guesswork and questions - am hoping Abhimanyu will be really good at this. Most of the time he is worried about us and how soon he can travel back to Bombay. Sometimes, of course, he wants to talk about completely different things. Yesterday he wanted to get Mama to connect with an old freind of his, a Russian gentleman named Krant. This one took some time - person, relative or colleague, boss or junior, with you in Bokaro or Bombay and then somehow narrowing it down to Krant. Any ideas out there on how to make this work faster/ better?
His old room mate (hypertension) got well enough to move out (lots of goodbye handshakes) and a new one moved in (diabetic and yes, welcome handshakes).
On form tomorrow is "Drowsy Day".
He had breakfast on his own - dropped a lot of it on himself but he did manage to plow through quite a bit of the porridge. A big change from when he had tubes going through his nose just late last week.
He swallowed all his tablets - and managed to keep them down. He had a long sitting in a wheelchair - close to two hours. Not bad, eh. Quite a bit of progress for one day.
And we are fast learning the art of communicating thru guesswork and questions - am hoping Abhimanyu will be really good at this. Most of the time he is worried about us and how soon he can travel back to Bombay. Sometimes, of course, he wants to talk about completely different things. Yesterday he wanted to get Mama to connect with an old freind of his, a Russian gentleman named Krant. This one took some time - person, relative or colleague, boss or junior, with you in Bokaro or Bombay and then somehow narrowing it down to Krant. Any ideas out there on how to make this work faster/ better?
His old room mate (hypertension) got well enough to move out (lots of goodbye handshakes) and a new one moved in (diabetic and yes, welcome handshakes).
On form tomorrow is "Drowsy Day".
Story so far
Dad had a stroke on the night of 14th October. Around 7 pm. He was rushed to the hospital within the hour. He had aphasia (loss of speech) and right side paralysis.
The haemoragic stroke was caused - apparently by high blood pressure - he does have a history going back 40 years. The left side bleed - moderate sized - definitely not mild - kept him in the ICU for close to a week.
He is now in a medical ward - slowly recovering his strength and his equanimity. The stand out feature of his stay here has been his desire to connect to everyone around him - a quick handshake with his left hand is what he offers to anyone visiting him. Or visiting the patient who shares this room with him. Happily connecting.
This blog is to keep everyone in the family and friends circle aware of the latest. Also to hear from anyone and everyone who has any advice to offer us in the coming days and months.
The haemoragic stroke was caused - apparently by high blood pressure - he does have a history going back 40 years. The left side bleed - moderate sized - definitely not mild - kept him in the ICU for close to a week.
He is now in a medical ward - slowly recovering his strength and his equanimity. The stand out feature of his stay here has been his desire to connect to everyone around him - a quick handshake with his left hand is what he offers to anyone visiting him. Or visiting the patient who shares this room with him. Happily connecting.
This blog is to keep everyone in the family and friends circle aware of the latest. Also to hear from anyone and everyone who has any advice to offer us in the coming days and months.
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