To the many folks who made comments and shared their pure intended advice to my diary entry yesterday in which I requested your aid I thank you from the heart for starters this morning. This is the update to my nephew Tony`s brain surgery that I mentioned writing today to pass on to you any changes in his medical condition among other things.
Any input that you feel might shed further positive light after reading this update I swear to you that I will store it in my heart with the rest of your earlier advice.
It was only at 6 a.m. this morning that I could get my sister on the phone. She did not return back home from the hospital until close to 2 a.m., and naturally I was asleep at that time. So she slept a mere three hours at most before my call woke her up. Now she must get ready to return to the hospital. More on this below.
Hopefully my update this morning as I now have it from her is positive. But if you are a mother you will find my take skeptical. We talked for close to an hour and a half and what she tells me of her engagement with doctors and nurses seeking specifics on Tony`s medical prognostics sounds encouraging for a mother as in this case. Below I will pass on to you what I know so far.
Yesterday I mentioned that my sister has many children with the majority all married and away from the nest where they were raised after birth. All of these now adults have circled around my sister to fortify physically around her. This appears to have strengthened her resolve to demand answers as her children stand behind at the hospital being present at the bedside of a brother.
Doctors say that Tony`s prognostic is unchanged. His condition has not improved nor has not gotten worst. He is on life support and hooked up to numerous tubes too many to count as my sister says. Whether the endotracheal plastic tube placed into his mouth and down into the entrance to his lungs causes discomfort is for "you" to advice.
Yesterday for the first time, my sister saw Tony cough. Others of her children have seen him cough prior to yesterday when my sister is not in the hospital. Doctors use a procedure to clear his throat using yet another tube device for this.
My sister tells me that Tony`s skin complexion is coming back to his normal self after having turned mostly purple due to the swelling of the brain. She swears to me that Tony can hear her when she speaks to him, by moving his eyes despite not opening them. I can only guess
that a mother is the only creditable candidate to make such a discovery as in this case.
Yesterday I had only pieces of information as to the issue of Tony`s hospital stay and about my sister`s right to have her son receive proper care without feeling threatened of having Tony kicked out onto the sidewalk. I am extra glad to inform you that my sister was put at rest and at ease on the issue of the 7 days of hospital stay that I wrote of in my prior diary. Our deep heart felt concerns about what would become of Tony if he was kicked out of the hospital in 7 days were unfounded and misunderstood.
I am amazed to learn this morning that Tony will be able to remain in the hospital for as long as it takes without my sister feeling threatened in any way. She was mentally walked through every phase of Tony`s case as it pertains to his surgery and stay at the hospital. I am pleased to inform you that Tony has top-notch medical care at the hospital where he lays unconscious connected to the modern medical devices and a nurse assigned to his bed side 24 hours a day.
The downside of all of this is what my sister found from one of the doctors. On a hospital chalk board the doctor drew a chart of Tony`s brain to explain to my sister in layman`s term what could be expected at the end of Tony`s stay in the hospital is he survives.
He will never walk again. He will never be the same man. He might even end up being a brain vegetable sort of man. My sister is a very smart woman. The doctor implied as they sometimes do in situations as this one, as he walked my sister into a situation where she would have to decide if she would think Tony wanted to continue living is such drastic manner. He told her that she was the only one alive who could allow her son to be disconnected from his life support mechanisms as he now lays. My sister believes that the doctor was suggesting that it would be better to let Tony die, instead of having to live in a situation as this or in this manner. She should consider terminating medical care and allowing him to go in peace by permitting disconnecting him from life support.
My sister is now up there in age herself. She no longer drives much and not at all at night. So this morning she was waiting for someone who would call that would be the driver to the hospital. Of all of her kids that is not a problem.
I asked her to get one of the kids to email me this morning so I could send her the link to my diary yesterday. I explained that all the comments were made specifically for her and she said that someone would write to me this morning. As I write this I have yet to get an email. But I understand all the confusion going on down there. I figured it best that she read the comments herself instead of me having to relay them to her if that is even possible based on the number.
So good news that our imaginary threat of being kicked out of the hospital for Tony was unfounded. Good news that he has the best medical care anyone could expect, including a specially assigned nurse at hit bedside at all hours of the day and night.
I simply cannot express my relief for my sister`s sake that such pressure was taken off her shoulders so to speak. The new information she got yesterday to the aforementioned care Tony is getting is good mental tonic for her I`m sure. I am sad though thinking, or trying to imagine what my sister will ultimately decided on the future of her son`s life. Will she want to see him as described by doctors or will she allow him to rest in peace..Only time will tell. I did tell her not to sign any documents where she takes responsibility for the cost of Tony`s surgery and hospital stay.
I will be able to be in contact with my sister by phone as long as she is in the hospital and with more ease while she is at home. If anything further develops that I may ask for advice I will post again.
Please feel free to make a comment or suggestion.