Today was a better day for Tom.  I had planned to stay at home until after school hours to get in a block of time of chores.  During that time, Tom called me twice from the hospital and our conversation was good.  I didn’t have any trouble understanding him.  Tom was giving me updates and today’s plan.  An Echo test was performed to make sure the heart is good and not affected by the meds. Another continuous EEG was put into place to capture one of the “Blackouts” that Tom has been having since last Friday.  Naturally, Tom had a small one prior the EEG.  The nurse said today was a good day. Overnight was better too.  By the afternoon, Tom was down to four IV’s and his new parameters for the blood pressure is 120-200.

Noah came to visit and brought a chess board along.  Noah won!  Tom enjoyed all visits today, the books to read, and special drawings or messages. He is also messing with the EEG monitor.  He likes to watch the monitor and make it move around.  Yes, he’s bored.

Continue to pray for a solution to this mystery, and get Tom out of ICU.

As Noah said to his Daddy, “Night Daddy, I love you.”

Tom’s condition hasn’t improved much in the last 24 to 48 hours.  He remains stable to a point.  Everyday since Friday he’s had these “phase outs”, which last up to 3 to 10 minutes.  They are not pleasant to watch.  Tom goes unresponsive, but his body language shows him understanding or at least some knowledge of what’s happening.  Today, Dr. Thorell was present for one of these “phase outs”, and it’s really scary and weird to watch.  There doesn’t seam to be rhyme or reason why it’s happening.  It would be better explained if Tom had just gotten up out of bed or something to that effect, but most of the time he’s just sitting there talking, eating, watching TV, reading a book, or nothing at all.  Today the cardio doctors have entered the picture.  Dr. Thorell is concerned that what they’re doing to profuse the brain with the blood pressure meds, could have an effect on Tom’s heart.  Meds have definitely made a positive difference up to this point, (more stroke more than likely would have happened), but now it’s time to reduce the meds. and come up with a different plan. Dr. Thorell referred to it like “Treading water”.  Tom’s speech was okay today, not great and he was very tired.  Over nights continue to be hard for him.  Last night he woke up around 4 am and was calling out.  Early morning 8 ish, he had one of these “phase outs, and about 1 pm.  I saw the 1pm one.  The night before his head really hurt and couldn’t sleep, and the card made by Noah’s class was freaking him out.  Apparently, the eyes on the pilgrim seemed to come alive.  The nurse took it down. He laughs about it now.  Tom’s requesting the blinds to be up a bit more during the day.  PT was in and really worked his arms and legs.  Tom likes the movement.  I left at 3 pm, and he was ready for a nap.  Today was hard for me too, as Noah wasn’t feeling well and I had to get someone to watch him before I headed to the hospital.  Noah also had a baby tooth that hadn’t come out when the permanent tooth came in, so we went to the dentist later in the day for that.  Noah is really missing his dad, and it’s starting to get to him.  the other boys are missing dad too, and tension is just at the surface.  We pray nightly for Tom.

We need prayers for the right combination of meds, and plan to get Tom out of ICU, to recovery and home. This is so frustrating. Looking at Tom he looks good, sounds pretty good most of the time, is eating, and wants to read and work. But the many answers of the unknown is so hard, and leaves me wondering when will they have an answer?  I continue to pray, and prepare the house for when Tom comes home.  Please continue to visit, maybe play a quick card game with him, short visits are good.  If Tom is laying his head back often, then he’s tired and needs to rest. He won’t tell you to leave, but know that he loves you all and totally appreciates the support. Good night until tomorrow, Karen

Beginning on the evening of November 1, Tom suffered what were thought to be a series of TIA’s Transient ischemic Attacks), which caused slurred speech and somewhat affected his ability to use his right side. He was taken to Immanuel hospital in Omaha and released again.  On Saturday, the 3rd,  he had a second event,  some tests were made, and he was released again on Tuesday.  Later in the week, he was again admitted to Immanuel  after another event.  After each event was over, Tom’s normal functioning would return, and he was suffering no pain.  However, the tests taken at Immanuel failed to show the cause of Tom’s problems.
On  Monday, November 12, Tom was transferred from Immanuel to the Medical Center at Clarkson (Omaha) for an angioplast, to try to determine the specific cause of his problems. Dr. Thorell, a highly reputed neurosurgeon, found a “hard place” in the artery behind Tom’s left eye. Surprisingly, the procedure shows that Tom’s body has formed collateral arteries that have been bypassing the blockage and feeding his brain. Tom has no plaque in the arteries of his brain, and Dr. Thorell believes that the blockage and collateral arteries are old, perhaps even congenital.
Because of the procedure, Tom was experiencing severe symptoms, so Dr. Thorell tried to put a probe through the blockage to open it up, but couldn’t push through and didn’t want to push harder for fear of rupturing the artery, which could have resulted in death. The doctor went around to the point of the blockage from the back and tried to open it with a wire, but that, too, was unsuccessful.  At this point, Verle and I left from the San Diego airport to fly back to be with Tom.
Tom was placed in ICU with  IV’s and other medication. He was communicating and moving pretty well when we arrived on Wednesday.  On Thursday, November 16, they tried to move Tom down to a regular hospital room, hoping that movement and therapy would help him to function normally again. However, his right hand went numb, he lost his ability to communicate, and they had to move him back to ICU.  Tests the next morning showed that Tom has had a moderately severe stroke.
Dr. Thorell says that Tom doesn’t follow the normal pattern in any way — he is young, has no health issues or bad habits, is a runner, and his body is in excellent shape except for the blockage. Dr. Thorell phoned all over the world for advice, and on Friday, the 16th they started a regimen to raise Tom’s blood pressure to try to get his body to open up the blockage and/or form more or larger collateral arteries.  Since then, Tom has slowly regained most of his speech and most of the functioning of his right hand.  However, from time to time he experiences quite severe agitation and at times has a lot of confusion or becomes “out of it” for a short period of time.  Each time he comes back as strong as before and continues improving.  The doctor says that current tests (November 26) show no more deterioration.  He believes that these episodes are due to the medication rather than to additional strokes.

This information came from Bruce to Verle to me. Bruce and Maureen visited Tom yesterday (Saturday). They found him working on his laptop — doing a program for work. He spoke in complete sentences, very close to normal speech, only occasionally having to stop to find a word. It seems that though Tom keeps having “spells” in which he is functioning very poorly, we are seeing continuing improvement overall in his functioning. His speech has greatly improved from when we were there Thursday. The fine motor skills of his right hand were still weak on Thursday — he had trouble picking up things — but his hand grasp was so strong that my hand was still a bit sore the next morning!

The following devotional thoughts came to me this morning when I was half awake and praying for Tom:

For each of us who follow Christ, our position is clear: “By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any of us should boast.” Paul often speaks of boasting only of “the cross of Jesus Christ.” Like Paul, we have times when our faith seems weak and we may even have doubts — but our position is in Christ — it’s not based on how close to God we feel at any given moment, or on how much we DO for Christ.

The next verse, a favorite of mine, builds on the above and ministers to me today:
“And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust Him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with Him. Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him. See that you go on growing in the Lord and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all He has done.” (Living Bible – Colossians 2:6-7)

I’m also reminded the He is God and I am not — I have to entrust Tom to Him — God knows what is best and loves Tom even more than we do!

These thoughts are very helpful to me as I struggle through this — I hope that they might be helpful to you, too.
Peggy/Mom/Grandma

We have set up a care calendar for Tom & Karen to make it easy for friends and family to see updates on how Tom is doing, and also to find out specific ways that we can help. Hopefully this will make it easy for Karen to let us know what she needs. The calendar is up and running with a place where you can sign up to bring meals, and also help out with light housework. More needs will be added later, so you’ll want to check back from time to time. Also, Karen will be placing updates on the news section of this site.

Please check out Tom & Karen’s calendar at the following address:

www.carecalendar.org
Login: 132382
Password: [contact a family member]

Please feel free to forward this information to anyone else you think may be interested.

Thanks so much! And if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Pastor Christy Ross
Jaynes Street Church

Good afternoon.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Tom enjoyed the plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, jello, and fudge.  He hasn’t eaten the pumpkin pie yet.  He doesn’t want to mess up his sugar counts.  It seems that his evenings have more anxiety, and it takes Tom a while to calm down.  There are several reasons for that, side effect of stroke itself, stuck in the same room and in bed for hours on end, continue wonder if things are getting worse or better, and lastly sometimes the variety of meds.  Today, after arriving, Tom was frustrated with not being able to log into his work laptop. He knew the right login and password, but his fingers wouldn’t push the correct keys.  He was angry, warm, didn’t appear to enjoy seeing me.  Eric happen to show up at that moment, and I went out to visit with Julie and kids.  They got to talking about football and all seemed okay.  Julie and kids said hi and they left.  I went back in, and Tom’s lunch had arrived.  He was enjoying it very much.  Cutting his own meat, using fork and knife.  He asked me a question about the game, and when I turned to answer, Tom was just staring straight forward and non responsive.  The nurse and neurologist on call came in, They laid Tom back, and he began to respond.    The event really tired him out, and he slept a bit.  I asked the doctor if we really were making progress.  He said yes, but it’s going painfully slow.  Timing for all this was the entire fourth quarter of the game.  Now, he was asking what happened, and ready to finish lunch.  Wow, this is very scary and frustrating.  Tom is currently, rambling and apologizing to everyone for his behavior.  He even said sorry dear, and wanted to give me a back rub.  All is stable at the moment.  Oh, forgot to say that he is in a sitting position, in the bed.  Baby steps.  Love you all.

Tom is doing very well today.  He is speaking quite freely, with little hesitation.   He is allowed to be in a much more upright position.

Just a quick update on Tom. His night was rough, but not because of pain. He has a lot of anxiety. The Chaplin came and sat with him. I talked with nurse this morning and he slept from 4 to 8. He’s better today. I’m planning on taking the boys up there this morning as it’s his best time of the day. He is currently in a semi sitting up position. We will bring him movies to watch. Boredom is setting in.

Tom is making progress, but it is very slow. Dr. Thorell said yesterday that it could be another 10 days in ICU. Baby steps. They will begin to slowly decrease the Blood pressure medicine, and see how well Tom responds. The oxygen mask was taken off yesterday and back of bed brought up higher. Tom did a stupid thing and scratched his left eye. The doctors did look it over very well, and put a gel type medicine in the lower lid with an eye patch. It itches, and that’s why it got scratched.

Tom is asking that visitors come in the morning or early afternoon when he is best. His speech isn’t as good later in day, and he gets tired. He enjoys the visit, but would like people to stay only 5 to 10 minutes. You can always call me to see if a visit will work later in day.

Speech and PT therapy began yesterday. Tom likes that.

I am working on getting a website up as a center location for updates and what needs the kids and I will need going forward. That is to reduce the number of phone calls and such. I get tired of repeating myself.

Tom and I are so blessed by the many family and friends with your outpouring love and support. I KNOW we can’t do this alone. God has been present all along, and working his magic. We thank you all so much. I am getting my thoughts of needs together a bit better.

Lisa could you please forward this to the Cramer’s. I know I have their email somewhere.

Thank you, thank you to each of you, and please keep praying.

I love you all, Karen

I was there from about 10:30 last night to noon today. His bed had been moved to be flat by the time I had got there last night. He slept decent from about 4 to 8 this morning. Uncomfortable and restless before that.

He is still having the same trouble talking and says his right arm/hand/leg are not quite normal. His right hand had less coordination as he ate a bowl of cereal and a cinnamon roll. He must eat right handed as he wanted to do that, but switched at times when having trouble.

He sat up and took his oxygen off while he ate, which was about 20 or 30 minutes without any noticeable change in his abilities. The nurse tweaked his blood pressure meds down slightly to bring his pressure down a bit, but his pressure went down to normal. This was at about the same time he ate sitting up and I didn’t notice any difference in abilities.

He is very bored and is worried about going stir crazy as he described it, especially if they decide that he has to lay flat on his back even longer than Thursday. And he is pretty worried about the future as far
as the uncertainty of whether he will have another stroke or not, and the doctors not knowing, etc.

Restful night, lots of good sleep for all of us.  There were no major heart episodes during the night, but cardiologists are doing a full scan of is heart right now.  Trying to get a good picture of just what is going on in the heart.  The heart beat tho steady is still considered irregular.  We may know more after the scan is complete.  When Tom woke up he seemed a bit more anxious and confused, but just know while talking with the cardiologist he made more complete sentences than i had heard before.  Main doctors (the neurology folks) will be in later for more consultation.  Remember this is just a layman’s report, open to all kinds of misinterpretation!