April 26, 2010

For those of you who don't know...my dad was hurt very severely on Saturday afternoon in a horseback riding accident. He was trying to get on the horse when the horse bucked or get scared and took off. Dad then either hit a rock or had the horse step on his head. An ambulance was called and when they arrived it was determined that LifeFlight was necessary. Dad was loaded up in the helicopter and flown to the hospital. He underwent surgery after a CT scan determined that it was necessary. The surgical team took excellent care of him and then the doctor came to talk to us. He told us that things are critical. The nurses and doctors have, so far, taken great care of dad.

As of today, there has been little change in dad's condition. He likes to move his right arm and leg. In fact, the nurses tease him about it. He doesn't move his left side yet except sometimes when the nurses squeeze it tightly. I was in the room this morning when they gave him his vitamins through his nasogastric tube. He seems to like them. One of the vitamin/nutrient solutions looks like pink lemonade. Dad loves lemonade so we tell him he is still drinking his favorite drink.

They also did an ultrasound of his legs to check for blood clots. So far, I don't know what the results were of the test. He had trouble holding still for the ultrasound on his right leg.

His intracranial pressures were a bit up today (normally ICP should be between 10-20. Dad's has been 10-15). Because of this they have asked us to speak quietly in his room and limit touching him. These things stimulate him and tend to make his ICP go up.

On Saturday night they did a craniectomy (removed a bit of his skull to allow the brain to swell so that it is not squished in the skull). He has staples in his head to hold the skin in place. You have to be careful around his head because he doesn't have the skull to protect his brain. He is still unconscious. They mostly have the sedation turned off. They have occasionally turned it back on (like when they put the cooling IV in his subclavian vein--he had a bit of a temperature so they put an IV in to help cool him down---the subclavian vein is located just under the collarbones). He is also intubated (a tube in his throat) to help him breathe. The respirator is set to have him breathe 20 times a minute. His arterial blood pressures are holding steady. They like that to be higher (strange because I always thought that high blood pressure was bad---higher blood pressure helps to profuse his brain---needed badly right now). He also has a right orbital fracture (broken bone just below the right eye) so his face is swollen and bruised.

Please check back as I will update this blog as often as possible. Please, if you can, pray for him as he will need all the help that he can get. Thanks.