Brent Beattie Brent Beattie, Man UP!!!

Brent

You woke up this morning with a really bad headache. Around 3am. Chills, sweating. I got you medicine, but you wouldn't take it.

On my drive to work, you called me to tell me that I better take you to the hospital.

I turned around and came back for you.

You were up, slow, and in pain. But you walked to the car, after managing the stairs just fine. We were silent in the car ride in. I kept touching you to see if you were okay. Your skin was cold. You were in pain.

We went to the emergency room entrance and you tried to walk in, but weren't doing so well. They checked you in and we went back to the ER room. You undressed.

They got you hooked up and gave you your first IV. they ran all the vitals, and treated you for the pain and nausea. You threw up once and I helped you.

10:08 - I called Kay to tell her we were in the hospital.

Your nurse, Gayla, was clumsy but had a good nurturing instinct. Dr. Matlock and her got in an argument about the pain medication and its side effects so they settled on a narcotic that would have minimal side effects. Well, then your heart rate started dropping. It got down to 28.

I asked Gayla, at what point do you get concerned?

She said, I am concerned now...

10:38am - I called Kay and told her to come up to the hospital. She was on her way.

They took you for a CT scan and when you returned, the neuro surgeon, Dr. Amene, informed me that you had a sub-Dural hematoma.

"It is quite large" - her quote.

She wanted to give you plasma to build up your platelets. We needed to either do surgery if you became unresponsive, or give you time to absorb it in your own.

But your blood was so thin that we couldn't do anything for now. She said it may be a day or two. But that it might be weeks before the blood clot was observed.

11:24 - After she left I started making phone calls.

Poor Travis. I called him, and I just melted down I couldn't... I couldn't talk and I just started crying and I told him he needed to come up here.

I called Stacey but couldn't reach her. I called Caleb. I told him he needed to come up.

Denny arrived, then Kay arrived, and then Caleb. Travis and Stacey came too.

We were all pretty light hearted, confident that you would be okay. But meanwhile you were slowly responding less and less. The surgeon ordered mannitol to reduce swelling in your brain. They pumped you full of saline.

This whole time we were waiting for a bed to open up in ICU.

They finally told us around 2:00 that they were going to move you and it would take about 45 minutes.

So we all left and went to the cafeteria. It was Denny, Stacy, Travis Caleb, Kay, and I.

We ended up in the cafeteria and ate lunch and thought since we had so much time we could just relax for a minute but then I decided to run home. I was going to take Fay to the kennel place.

3:24. I got halfway home and Stacey called me to tell me that they were looking for me. That during the move from ER up to the ICU, your ICU nurse, Ruth, realized that you were not the same patient as what they had described in the ER.

She called the neurosurgeon (NS) at the same time the NS was notifying the ER to take you into surgery.

I rushed back. Kay, Denny and Suzanne, Caleb and Sophie, Travis and Stacey, and I were all there waiting in the survey area. The cowherds showed up. Angie, Jenifer, Ron, David and Connie. We waited....

5:30. Finally, they called immediate family to a consult room. This was one of the hardest parts, Brent. The room. The Little room, so pressurized with foreboding that there's no space to breath or think. Kay began sobbing, she was so afraid. I couldn't imagine making that walk into that room after what she has been through in her life.

She said she knew it was bad when they take you into the Little room. Such a child-like statement. Such a child-like sense of helplessness.

The NS explained that based on your condition in the ER, and the status in which they found you in ICU, they had to operate. I asked her if you were alive. She said you were very critical. The next 48-72 hours would determine everything.

Everything....

The next 48-72 hours were going to determine my life, your life, everyone's future. I felt so bad for Travis. I felt like I had let everyone down. Like I had not taken care of you.

We went back to the surgery waiting area to let everyone else know what had happened. That was really hard to tell everyone. Laurie sobbed and Caleb sobbed held his mom. We waited until they told us that you were going back to ICU and then all of us moved back to the ICU waiting room. Once I got everyone headed toward the right elevators I went to the desk and asked them to get Dr. Amene, the neurosurgeon, so I could ask her one more question. She came out and I asked her if you were going to die in the next 12 hours, if that was a possibility. I told her that I needed to know because if you were going to die, I needed to go get our daughters so that they could say goodbye. She told me that you were very critical but that if you started to decline, she would not mince words. She would have them notify me so that we would have time to get the girls here.



We were able to get into the waiting room because unfortunately, the person of the family that had been occupying all the room before had passed on.

We stayed that night, all of us waiting for news, and we didn't get to see much of you. They were very strict about visiting hours. You were completely unresponsive. You didn't move. Jason, your nurse, was there to take care of you all night long but he did not allow us back there to see you. Many people stayed until late into the night. Oddly, Andrew Sherrill came back after everyone had left and he talk to me until about 1:30 in the morning. It was surreal and kind.

It was exactly what I needed.

So Kay and I decided we couldn't leave. We couldn't stand the thought of needing to be there if something happened, particularly after the doctor had told us how critical this first 12 hours were.

Before it got too late, I called the girls who were with Dennis at the time, and I got to talk to each one of them one at a time. I had to tell them how serious this was but I had to be positive.

Kay and I tried to sleep on that stupid furniture but it was so uncomfortable, we couldn't. We tossed and turned and called back once an hour to check on you. But they said "no change". And that was fine by me because that meant nothing was wrong. Well for now.