updates
thanks to everyone who's been inquiring and showing concern for my cousin in the coma and my grandfather with cancer. (look at me! i have readers!)
sorry if i haven't gotten back to everyone, it's been busy, but i have good news.
today i visited my cousin again, only when i got to his new room (out of ICU) his eyes were open! he looked up in wonderment at the big balloons i brought and possibly in amusement. the room was full of family and excitement. apperently he had only been awake for about 20 minutes. he hadn't said anything during that time but he recognized family and sometimes nodded appropriately to questions he was asked. he was holding a tennis ball and could pass it to a relative when asked for it, but he couldn't yet pass it from his left hand to his right. his father had written a number on the ball and when asked what it was, he tapped the ball five times. when asked again, he could do it again. his movements are very slow and strained like a very young child learning to work his body for the first time. but we are all confident that, like a child, he will be able to learn to do everything all over again.
most encouraging was the news that, while no one was around this morning, a new, cute, young nurse came in to his room and he opened his eyes and smiled big for her. she introduced herself and he said, "i'm brian." he still responds best for this cute, young nurse. we're hoping we'll get to hear him speak again soon. in the meantime, whenever she speaks to him he touches his head and his hair. we ask him if it hurts and maybe it does, but it's more likely that he is trying to check his hair so that he looks good. this guy spends two hours getting ready, and some things never change.
everyday things have been going a little better for him as his body recovers and now that he is starting to wake up. they say the recovery could take a year and no one can say that his recovery will be complete but we are of course hopeful. the news is certainly easier to be positive about than the news we had last week. after he was finally healthy enough to undergo an MRI, we found out that the coma was not just because of concussion but because of severe brain damage. the small part of the brain at the base, between the two hemispheres showed little dark spots caused by jarring motions. that was a very dark day. but his waking up is a good sign that his brain is finding new paths to recover abilities that were lost. the fact that he knew his name and could speak coherently for at least one small sentence tells us that he and his life and his memories are still in there, trying to get out.
after five minutes or so of my visit and all the commotion of people trying to get his attention and response, he started trying to pull tubes out, to sit up, and even to get out of bed. we all quickly left him alone to let his mother and nurse try to calm him down. i guess our excitement and efforts were an overstimulation and he was probably trying to get away, but that's brian too. he never wanted to be the center of attention.
so it was then time to make the trip, as i always do, to the next hospital to visit my grandfather. last week his surgery that had been put off until he was more stable, had become of life-or-death necessity. he was in the ICU for about a week but now has a normal room. he is recovering well, especially since the NG tube down his nose into his stomach was removed. it was giving him the hiccups which he endured for more than seven days. hiccups for seven days would drive me to the point of suicidal exhaustion. imagine that on a frail elderly man right after his second invasive surgery in two months. but now he finally seems stronger and more alert. the surgery was successful in it's removal of the cancerous tumor blocking the bile duct from his pancreas. the biopsy was also positive showing that the cancer was encapsulated and had not spread.
this months long death-scare has served to bring me closer to the grandfather that i never knew. it is sometimes difficult and awkward to sit with him for any real length of time because we have nothing to say. i didn't know him growing up because he never came by or invited me to see him. as a youth, when i was dying and in and out of the hospital for 3 years before and during my surgeries, i don't remember him coming to see me. so we don't have much of a relationship to build on. but at the end of his life, i think he's come to realize that he needs his family and they are all he has now. so i visit often and we exchange "i love you"'s because i do. he's my grandfather and i'd like to know him better. i am glad now that we get that chance.
Posted by heydomsar
2005-10-13
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
