Terry

Terry was still in the hospital at the beginning of the month. We don't really know why his release was delayed. The next time we checked in with him, he was hoping to get his catheter out before going home. I don't know what the issue was, but he ended up having to leave it in as he was not able to urinate normally still.

He was home for a few days but he was barely eating. He had some medication so that his esophagus would not close up on him and one of his medications was causing him to be nauseous. He was not doing very well. A nurse was supposed to go check up on him but would not be able to schedule him until after the Fourth of July weekend. They told Jackie to bring him back in but she wanted to wait for the nurse or something. In the end, they had to have him taken to the hospital anyway, but this time in an ambulance as he had a small seizure. He had a worse one on the way. The ended up intubating him. We were afraid that this was the end.

They said his seizure was from an electrolyte imbalance. Basically, it was a side effect of him starving to death. I really don't think the hospital really takes in what its patients are going through. They deprived him of water and food before at least two procedures in the prior week. He was so hungry, he tried to get up and leave the hospital. They had to have security come and restrain him. I do't know for what reason his second procedure was delayed, but I'm sure they had to starve him again until they could do the operation. Then, they give him medication that makes him unable to hold down his food.

They adjusted his medication and Aron came back to make them take out his breathing tube so that he can have a chance to have his body recover. Afterwards, they were able to get him on a liquid diet. After he was able to eat solid food again, they were hoping to move him back out of the hospital later that week. Of course, as the day approached, they said that his heart rate was irregular and weak. They talked to his heart doctor. Eventually, they had him moved to the cardiac unit back at Kaiser. It was at least another day or so until they moved him. They took his staples out from his surgery. 

Aron came back down to make sure he had decent food prepared and stocked up at home that he would hopefully be able to eat. Christian went to visit him to keep his spirits up after so many setbacks. They found out that a lot of his troubles from what started all this was not a simple infection or gall stones but the result of his body attacking itself because of some problem he had when he had his stomach blown apart when he was a young man checking on some unexploded ordnance!

At some point, the next day, they discovered that he couldn't move his left side. Apparently, he had a major stroke. He had the stroke while already on blood thinners from when he had heart surgery several years ago. Again, we thought the worst, especially since it has been difficult to get any details about what is actually going on. It has been really stressful waiting to hear about what is going on.

Once again, they got him stabilized and he doesn't seem to have suffered any major permanent problems from the stroke. He is able to talk and walk again.  After a couple more days, he was finally able to go home once again. Hopefully, he is starting to actually recover this time. He has been sleeping a lot. I am almost afraid to get an update as it has been so difficult for him lately. I think he is just taking it a day at a time now. Although we now know what was causing his original health problems, we don't really know what caused his stroke.