Janet Klinkhammer

Welcome to Jan's Caring Bridge page. I wanted to start this for her to keep everyone updated on mom and how she is doing. This is her story.

Mom and Dad had a wonderful Valentine's day dinner on February  13th to celebrate. When they got home, mom was planning to head up stairs to lay down and watch some T.V. Dad had went just around the corner to grab her meds for her when he heard mom scream. He went back to the steps and found mom at the bottom of the steps unconscious. EMS was called and mom woke up in the meantime and was slurring incomprehensible words, and unable to move her L side. She was brought to the McKennan ER  and a head CT showed multiple areas of bleeding on her left and right brain.  These areas of bleeding are unfortunately affecting her speech, movement on her left side, and awareness of her left side. Neurosurgery was consulted for the bleeding and thank the Lord, no surgery was needed at this time. The bad news that he gave us though was that it was a really bad scan and she may not regain any of those functions that she has lost.  She was admitted to the Neuro acute floor for close monitoring of her mental status. On Wednesday, her mental status began to decline, she was no longer following commands, opening her eyes, and was only withdrawing to pain.  Repeat stat head CT was done showing that the bleed was the same and had not increased in size - THANK GOD!!! EEG was done to check for possible seizures, but it just showed a little slowing of the brain, which is normal with this kind of injury. Mom was getting to a point where she may no longer be able to protect her airway. Mom was moved to the ICU for close monitoring, in case she needed to be intubated to protect her airway. Please keep Jan in your prayers as she is going to need lots of them as she has a very long road ahead of her to work to get her function back. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers in this very difficult time, it is very much appreciated!!