Post #304,991
3/3/09 7:58:58 AM
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Daughter update
Wednesday the butt-head son-in-law rudely dismissed my wife from daughter's bedside. Daughter has leukemia but stable. Wife had driven about an hour towards home when the hospital called "come back NOW!"
Daughter had a brain aneurysm. Emergency brain surgery. Very, very bad. I got the call "get the other kids, get here NOW!"
5 hour drive. Got there after hours, went to hotel.
6:00 AM call from the hospital. Blood clot on brain. Much worse than the aneurysm. More emergency brain surgery. Huge risk to speech centers.
Son in Germany summoned. Red Cross expedited leave and plane ticket.
Frontal bone of skull is in a freezer downstairs in case she ever needs it back, but they don't expect her to survive surgery, much less wake up again.
Horoscope say's she'll be hosting a major party. She does - this is the biggest reunion my family has had in years.
Survived surgery. Not expected to recover from coma.
Woke up Saturday morning. Slow, not like in the movies. Pulling minor pranks (yanking gloves off visitors (no white blood cells, so gloves, masks, etc.) breaking the evil finger-clip blood monitor) and drawing stick figures by evening. Never thought we'd be so proud of our super-genius college graduate drawing a stick figure.
Breathing tube out today. A few whispered words, her throat is really sore and she's really tired, but she has a functioning speech center!
Now, if she can get through the next few weeks without pneumonia, stroke, seizures ... hell, I can't remember all the things that are out to kill her ... she can get back to dealing with blood cancer. If she's good, she can have her skull back in 6 months or a year.
I told her "the only people you are surprising are people who don't know you".
The aneurysm was apparently unrelated to leukemia. If she hadn't been in the hospital, she probably would have taken a bunch of ibuprophin for the headache and gone to bed forever.
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Post #304,992
3/3/09 8:35:51 AM
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Wow, sorry and happy all at the same time.
Sorry her struggles continue but great that she is a fighter and is coming through these trials.
I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
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Post #304,994
3/3/09 8:43:34 AM
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Hoping for the best
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Post #304,995
3/3/09 8:57:44 AM
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Never rains but it pours, eh?
Here's hoping it all comes out okay...
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Post #304,996
3/3/09 8:57:46 AM
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Hoping for the best.
-Mike
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #304,997
3/3/09 9:24:33 AM
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Wow. Hang in there. Best wishes.
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Post #305,002
3/3/09 2:12:47 PM
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That is awesome that she is recovering from the clot...
But not so awesome she has to recover and still fight the dreaded cancer.
Hang in there, she doesn't appear dead yet! Or as the saying goes:
the rumors of her demise are greatly exaggerated.
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Post #305,004
3/3/09 2:44:00 PM
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At such times we see that 'statistics' is Never about
>you< (or in this case >her<). The bad numbers just scare us; the good ones allay some of the imaginations.
ie. 'MTBF' may be a useful metric, across a 100K production run of disk drives -- but it's child's-play when factoring in human Will, genes.. just plain Attitude (I. wot.)
And, just a personal-WAG: if her er, deviltry humor-sense is alive and well I?! - I can't think of a more fortuitous combination for cheating the insurance actuaries. Save that skull cap, eh?
Cheers,
Ashton
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Post #305,014
3/3/09 4:07:13 PM
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Best wishes, thoughts, and prayers
and whatever else you desire. Hang in there.
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Post #305,020
3/3/09 5:34:11 PM
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See if they can do some upgrades
Like add a turbo, since the bonnet is already open.
And, seriously, wishing her the best.
--
Drew
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Post #305,021
3/3/09 6:06:49 PM
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We're with ya.
In spirit if not in presence.
Wade.
"Ah -- I take it the doorbell doesn't work?"
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Post #305,029
3/3/09 10:48:52 PM
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Phew, that's a close one, Mike!
But, another struggle continues. Crossing fingers on that one.
Alex
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Post #305,033
3/4/09 12:07:54 AM
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Thanks all
Small stroke today. Worried about meningitis - chemo knocked out immune system so if that hits, well, game over - we get to sit and watch her brain rot.
She's the one with the brain damage - why doesn't mine work? This morning her brother was almost late for school because our vehicle was stuck on the ice. Tried rocking, kitty litter, all the usual tricks. The one that worked best was releasing the emergency brake. And then there is my loss of language function as displayed here.
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Post #305,040
3/4/09 8:45:45 AM
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Re: Thanks all
forebrain goes on vacation when the back brain takes over. You are in a foreground recyle so all of the reflexive learning, like releasing the parking brake goes out of the window until you have internal resolution. Stay well.
thanx,
bill
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Post #305,114
3/4/09 9:16:46 PM
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I add my hopes...
for every further development to fall your daughter's way.
cordially,
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