As some of you know, my dad (Roger) had a cerebellar stroke on Tuesday 10/31. I will do my best to summarize the past 7 days, but I may be missing quite a few parts as it has been a wild ride. Tuesday 10/31: My dad woke up feeling dizzy and uncomfortable and thought he was having an episode of vertigo. He otherwise was communicating fine. He went to the ER at Aurora in Sheboygan where they confirmed he had a cerebellar stroke. TPA was not used for those of you in the medical field. My mom and I were with him in the ER. He was communicating and very much himself. He was very dizzy and had a difficult time swallowing and required quite a bit of suctioning to remain comfortable. He went in for an MRI around 7:00pm and we were told he’d be going up to his room after when visiting hours were over. So we headed home for the night.
Wednesday 11/1: We received a phone call around 7:30 that my dad had coded and that they were completing CPR. We rushed to the hospital and when we arrived they were able to get a pulse and he was intubated. He’d received CPR for approximately 25 minutes. They determined that the cardiac arrest was due to a large aspiration event.
Wednesday is a day I can’t really explain because it was so intense. Every moment of the day brought something new. He remained sedated and comfortable; however, was very critical medically. He had a CT around 5:00pm Wednesday and one of the MDs told us everything looked good and to come back in the morning. So…we left. We were about 7 minutes away when they called and let us know they were going to Flight for Life him to St. Luke’s in Milwaukee with fear he would need emergency surgery to eleviate pressure on his brainstem.
My sister, AJ (her husband), my mom, and I drove down to St. Luke’s. The nursing staff and MD informed us that he was on a max level of care: max ventilation and max pressors (to keep his heart going). There was a lot of concern we would not make it to Thursday.
**the rest of the days sort of blend together so forgive me if my timeline is out of wack. I also will be leaving out some low points that are no longer relevant to where we are now**
Adam, Sadie, and Hayden flew in Thursday. We are all so relieved to be together.
My dad started to do much better managing his respirations on the ventilator and he was weaned off of the medication to keep his heart beating. We were certainly moving in the right direction. My biggest fear was that when he woke up, his body would be there but he’d be gone.
Once they were able to wean him off of sedation he has been consistently responding to nursing, Drs, and all of us. His right side is less coordinated/weaker than his left. He is left-handed and able to write to us things he’s thinking about and things that he needs. There do not appear to be cognitive deficits.
Hayden has provided him a great deal of comfort and joy. She is such an amazing little girl. She comes in, holds his hand, tells him “Grandpa Roger, you feel better” and that she loves him. She is also providing the rest of us with the love and reprieve we need from this impossible situation.
My Aunt Cheryl & Uncle Mike visited on Friday/Saturday and my Aunt Lavonne and cousin Kristi came down on Saturday. He was so appreciative that they took the long drive to see him! My aunt Lori & Uncle Tom also drove down Sunday to visit with my mom and dad.
He watched the Badger game Saturday and was shocked when the Packers won on Sunday…like the rest of us :)
Callie came down on Sunday to give me a little break and to visit a bit. He appreciated the sweet card from Arlo and the lovely video her boys sent.
Over the weekend, they began to decrease the levels on both his ventilator and the nitric oxide being used. The nitric oxide was being used to maximize respiratory output/oxygenation.
On Monday 11/6, he was weaned off of the nitric oxide completely and they were able to wean him down on the vent. His chest CT indicated quite a bit of fluid/pneumonia and a couple of small pleural effusions. The medical team felt it was worth a try to extubate him.
They extubated him around 4pm. It did not go well for him. He required maximum O2 on bipap and they reintroduced the nitric oxide. We noticed that it appeared very labor-intensive for him to breathe. At approximately 7:30 they re-intubated him. This was not surprising to us who’d observed his breathing difficulty without the tube. One SILVER LINING of that process is that they had to sedate him to put the breathing tube back in, so they were able to complete a bronch and clear quite a bit of fluid out of his lungs. We were able to sleep Monday night knowing he was more comfortable with the breathing tube and that he’d make it through the night.
Tuesday 11/7: He was himself again in the morning and writing to us. The day was relatively uneventful and they were able to wean him off of the nitric oxide once again and began to decrease the amount of ventilator support. Rachel & Becca stopped by to spend some time with Morgan and they visited with dad bringing him some much needed joy.
Wednesday 11/8: He started some OT/PT today and was sitting up on the edge of the bed with support! He is still intubated with the plan to continue to decrease vent setting in hopes of extubating more successfully.
They found a blood clot in his right leg that is going to require a procedure (IVC filter) to keep from traveling throughout his body and causing an issue in his heart or another stroke.
We have received such an outpouring of love, support, and assistance. We are so grateful for all of you and know that if you could help, you would. We are also so lucky to have each other!
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