Recovery

So i know a lot of people want to know how long he will be here and do they expect a full recovery. These 2 most important questions are the 2 they can't answer completely. He has made great progress and the doctors say they really expect him to make a full recovery, but they will be able to give us a better answer between day 14 & 21. This to me has been one of the most frustrating things, but at the same time, I totally understand because anytime someone has brain surgery the outcome is so unknown.

Like I said, Billy is doing great, but the reason he has to be in ICU for a minimum of 14 days is because between day 5 & 14 he is at risk for Vasospasms (which is when the blood vessels constrict and cause stroke like symptoms and if not treated within 45 minutes to an hour can cause permanent brain damage) If he begins to have a vasospasm they will take him down to interventional radiology, where they would go through the femoral artery (in the upper thigh) up to the brain and inject a medication to dilate the vessel. I asked one of the Neurosurgery Residents what were his odds of having a vasospasm. He said they rate aneurysms from 1-4 (4 being worst) and Billy's was a 3 so he said he has a 95% chance of having a vasospasm. But like everything in this situation we just have to wait and see.

So if Billy gets out of ICU around day 14, they will then move him to a step down floor (normal room) for 2-7 days before he can go home. So if all goes really well and he's home in 3 weeks they tell me it will probably be about another month before he can go back to work, but possibly longer. (I think I must need to learn more patience. Here's the hint, "It will be at lease 14 days before we can tell you if your husband will be completely ok".) I'm trying to keep some humor is this situation or I will definitely go crazy.

One of the other hard things about this situation is that my two youngest kids, Karsyn & Landon can't see their dad until he's out of ICU, which like I said before, we have know idea when that will be. Time concept is hard at their age especially for Landon. He asked me the other day when dad was coming home. He was also very upset that dad was going to miss Halloween. I told him we would take lots of pictures of them in their costumes and show dad. He liked that idea, but misses his daddy very much. All the kids do and really just want their dad back. It's been hard explaining what is going on with their dad, but it's the hardest when they ask if dad will be ok and will dad still be able to play with me like he did before?? Those are answers that I still don't know myself. I've tried to tell them that dad is doing really good and the doctors think he will be just fine, but it will take a long time for him to be completely back to normal.

The last thing I wanted to tell everyone is that the doctors and nurses all keep telling me the next couple of weeks will be like a roller coaster. It's very normal to have really good days and then really bad days. He can even have 2 or 3 good days and then decline. They tell me to prepare myself for constant ups and downs because unfortuantely this is the nature of Aneurysms and brain surgery. I'm just trying to plan for the worst and hope for the best. One of the biggest advantages Billy has is that he is young, strong, healthy and a fighter. He will work hard to overcome this trial and I truly believe we will be a stronger family because of it.