Day 9

We are settled in here at the University of Utah now and a new team of neurologists, pharmacists, therapists, internists and nurses are nose deep in my Dad's case. When we arrived here last night we were greeted by a resident who walked us through a new CT scan of my Dad's brain. There was definitely less blood than before but still a large amount in his lateral ventricles. They immediately weaned his sedation and removed his art line, IJ and cooling probe (from his femoral artery). They are very concerned about Dad's risk for infection with so many invasive lines.

Last night seemed difficult for my Dad. With the sedation lowered (and eventually turned off), he did not wake, but resumed the familiar shaking. His temperature continued to rise, eventually reaching 100.4, so a large blanket called, "The Artic Sun" was placed around him to reduce the fever. He also became tachycardic, with a heart rate of 140. Landon and I stayed with him until very late and it was so hard for me to leave him. After reassurances from the nurse that she would call me with any changes, and a sure knowledge that my Dad would want all of us to be taking care of ourselves, we turned in for the night.

This morning my Mom and I were greeted by the ICU doctor, Dr. Marshall. He changed the ventilator settings from "Assist/Control", where the ventilator is doing most of the work, to "Self", a setting in which my Dad controls the rate and depth of his breathing. He assured us that this was a good sign but he is still unclear about my Dad's prognosis as they are starting over at square 1 here. The sedation is still off and my Dad's shaking has improved greatly. They have lowered his temperature (and subsequently his heart rate) and are now performing an EEG to watch for signs of seizure activity.

My Dad's extremities (mainly his feet) have been cold for days with weak pulses in his feet. A vascular technician is here now performing an ultrasound of his legs and has verified that he does have a DVT (a blood clot in the leg) in both legs. This is not uncommon for a patient who is immobile and is just one more issue we will need to do with.

Saying we are overwhelmed is an understatement. They want to perform an MRI today and we are hopeful this will give us more information about what caused this, and what damage has been done. The team here is great, they seem to be very proactive about taking care of him and addressing his current problems. I know we are where we need to be and am praying for some answers in the near future.