12/9

Apologies in the delay for an update, it was such a busy day that I literally haven't stopped moving since waking up this morning.  I spent a lot of the day in the hospital and had numerous meetings with people to go over various paperwork for my dad, etc.  Then I went to the grocery store to get some things for my grandmother, who has a very nasty case of pneumonia.  I brought that stuff to her house, visited, and made sure she was ok.  Then I drove back home to get the kids fed, bathed, and in bed and after that immediately went back to the hospital to check on my dad and visit one last time for the night.  And now here I am!  Almost falling asleep at the keyboard.

But it was a good day in that I came to better terms with my dad's illness and got a better understanding of what to expect for his recovery.  I've mentioned Cathy before, she is the chief neurology resident at HMC, the wife of one of my ER clinical head nurses, an excellent baker, and a sweetheart of a person.  She stopped by to explain some things to me about the virus that has infected his brain and caused the encephalitis.  The take-home message is that the brain takes a long time to heal, we need to take it one day at a time, he's receiving the treatment that he needs, and all things considered my dad really does look great for where he is in this very early phase of the healing process.

If you think about it, first there is an infection on/in the brain.  Then it swells up in reaction, while trying to the fight the infection.  Unfortunately the brain is enclosed in a container, so you also end up with pressure and some heat from the fever.  Even in a perfect scenario where there isn't any permanent damage from all of those things, the brain still has to get over what it just went through.  And the brain isn't just a one-function organ, i.e. a pump like the heart or an air-exchanger like the lungs.  It has a LOT of different functions, many of them inter-related via electric signals and chemical messages.  Not only that, but the very things that make those chemicals and monitor their levels are also in the brain.   So, it takes awhile for all those things to get back to where they belong, or at least as close to that as possible.

So this is my reminder to myself to be patient.  My dad is healing every day but we have a long road ahead, hopefully with continued positive changes.  He may be intubated/sedated for another week.  He may be in the hospital for several weeks.  His recovery may be months or longer.  He may have some resulting problems with his memory or physical issues.  Or he may not.  We really don't know any of that right now.  We just have to take it one day at a time and be the best support for him that we can be.