An Update as of 2/7/16

Today was at times a frustrating and at other times peaceful day. When I arrived this morning, I was able to speak with Bob's physicians and learned that he did not experience any seizures last night. As of that point in time, he had not had a seizure in two days. The decision was made to reduce another of his anti-seizure medication dosages to see if this would trigger more seizure activity. We were told that if he didn't have anymore seizures today or tonight, they probably wouldn't be taking the electrodes out on Monday.

Bob's memory was very poor today and he struggled greatly with anxiety. When he would awaken from a nap, he was frequently confused and scared. When I first walked in his room this morning, the nursing staff was cleaning up spilled tea and having Bob put on mitts to keep himself from attempting to tear out his IV. Bob was happy to wear the mitts, as he said his scalp was itching and this prevented him from scratching himself. We spent the morning listening to the church services from our home church on his iPad and this brought us both some peaceful rest. 

Due to his poor memory, Bob has had a great deal of difficulty remembering to manage his own pain medication. His nursing staff has been wonderful about coaching him through this process, but we made the executive decision to take the pain medication out of his hands so to speak. A more consistent level of pain control was helpful to him this afternoon and we were able to play cards and converse with one another. There were glimmers of the Bob we know and love throughout the day as he attempted to make the doctors and nurses laugh. This was heartening to me.

I left for a quick lunch late in the afternoon and arrived back at the hospital to find out that Bob had ripped the IV and pain pump out of his arm to take himself to the bathroom. It was a bit of an ordeal to get everything hooked back up, but we are so blessed to be working with such caring and compassionate nursing staff who understand Bob's confusion. After getting him all hooked back up, we were able to spend the evening watching the Super Bowl together.

When I left this evening, Bob had not had any seizures yet. He made many attempts to stall me from leaving as his anxiety was ratcheting up. I reassured him that he was going to be well cared for at UVA and that the doctors and nursing staff were hoping he would have a few seizures so they could obtain better data on his seizure activity. A nurses aid was going to be staying in his room with him overnight to reassure him when he wakes up in the middle of the night, as this appears to be when he is most anxious and confused. 

I am so grateful to our dear friends Bob and Alice who will be coming up tomorrow to sit with Bob and give me a chance to get a break. They have offered to stay for three days and I have decided we will take it a day at a time to determine if we need them to stay for that long. Today's events made it very clear to me that someone who knows Bob well needs to be with him at all times when he's awake. 

Please pray that Bob has some seizures this evening and tomorrow. Please also pray that the increase in pain medication helps reduce the static the technicians were noticing in his data (it is alleged that Bob's pain levels were high due to his inability to control the pain medication and that this was causing "static" in the data they were collecting). Please also continue to say prayers of gratitude for the incredibly compassionate and caring staff at UVA. Especially after our experience this past summer in Buffalo, we are even more keenly aware as to how wonderful it is to be surrounded by kind, competent staff who are true professionals. Thank you again for all of your continued prayers and kind words. I am hopeful tomorrow will be a better day.

-Megan