Tom fell down the stairs last night around midnight on his way to bed. Katie and I were already in bed and heard a loud crash. Tom was lying on his back at the bottom of the staircase having a mild seizure lasting only about 10 seconds. He was so disoriented - he couldn't remember our address, what day it was, the date. He couldn't remember the Christmas eve gathering we had the night before. He complained of his head hurting. He saw that his glasses had been broken and said something like, "Wow! Did I do that?!" I showed him his glasses four more times after that and he had the same reaction each time.
An ambulance came and took him to North Fulton Regional Hospital, which is close to our house. When he was finally admitted to a room, Katie and I left. It was 6:30am. We came home, turned off all phone ringers, and slept for the next five hours.
Katie went to her best friend's house today while I went and spent some time with Tom. He is conscious but takes lots of "cat naps". He also says things that don't make sense, some of which are very funny! He told one doctor to go play with a banana. He also told his sister that he was going to have surgery to remove some tools, and that he would be going home the next day.
The doctor took an MRI last night/this morning and found some hemorraging in part of his brain. They are awaiting the results of a second MRI which was done this afternoon. If the bleeding has not stopped then they will likely have to do surgery to "mend a tear". There is a chance that he may have a brain aneurysm (or maybe one has already ruptured, according to the info in this link). Hopefulley they can rule that out with the results of the MRI.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/brain-aneurysm/DS00582
I feel like a bobblehead doll from lack of sleep. I'll let you know when I find out any news.
6 comments:
Lisa... I just got onto your blog after hearing the news from Brad. Please let us know the latest when you hear from the doctors. You're all in our prayers.
Lisa - let me know ASAP if there is anything we can do to help - ANYTHING. Don't hesitate to ask!!!! Our thoughts are with you, Tom & Katie.
Lisa,
I'm glad you and Katie got some sleep. What a night for all of you! I anxiously await further news. Please give Tom my love. You are all in my prayers.
Hugs ,
Elise
This is very bad news. We are so sorry. We will be trying to find out more tomorrow. Tom is in Northside Hospital again?
Oh, my, you folks have had so much going on. God bless you and Tom and Katie. We need to get Tom well again. This is hopefully a minor setback. You didn't say he broke any bones, so hopefully he will be able to recover quickly. We will be over to see you guys at the hospital! Take care!
Ok, here's something to think about . . . it sounds like Tom has suffered a brain concussion. That would explain him repeating things over and over and not being able to focus on new information. Hopefully that is the case, because brain concussions (bruising the brain due to a sudden jolt) usually heal O.K. It does take a while for the patient to come back to reality. We have seen this before in people and it seems very scary at the time, but it subsides after a little while.
We realize that Tom is not in Northside Hospital. We will call tomorrow (Saturday) and come see you folks at the hospital. We hope it is nothing more than a concussion . . . let's think positive about this. Tom is a very strong person.
Check out this link about concussions. A brain concussion can cause bleeding etc. It is usually healed over time with rest. Basically, someone who falls or gets in an accident where there is a sudden blow to the head will suffer from a concussion, which often causes the victim to have scrambled thoughts, to say silly disjointed things, to imagine things that aren't real, and to have headaches, short term memory loss, etc. Go look at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/concussion/DS00320
I'm not a doctor, just saying that we have seen people with these symptoms before after a head injury. They did get better after a few weeks.
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