the saga: day 8

12.11.2010

We called an ambulance today at 1pm, when Derek became unresponsive. We went back to Duke, where he’s been seen today by ER docs, neurosurgery, and neurology. While his CT scan shows no apparent change since Weds (so neurosurgery was ready to send him home), neurology agrees that there has been very significant deterioration in his condition. They advocated to have him admitted, offering that they felt he was in no condition to leave the hospital. At this time they feel that Derek’s prognosis is still very good—that his symptoms are being caused by intracranial pressure, and that when this pressure begins to subside that his symptoms will as well.

We have asked to have a new neurosurgeon assigned to Derek (we have asked for Dr. Henry Friedman and hope he will take Derek’s case), though we will likely not meet with him until early in the week. We were thrilled with our first experience with neurology resident Dr. Matthew Robertson, and felt very confident in his assessment, his concern, and his team’s insistence that Derek be admitted. He said that his team will be monitoring Derek’s neurological symptoms and intracranial pressure on an hourly basis, and will seek surgical intervention at any time they feel that his symptoms indicate greater risk to his life/long term health than surgery does.

We were blessed with great nurses today/tonight who were also exceptionally attentive to his needs and who were strong advocates for having him admitted.

It appears that this could be a much longer hospital stay this time…though I’m very relieved that Derek will be closely monitored at this time. I know that I’ll rest easier. I’m also very grateful that Derek’s mom arrived tonight to be with him/us, and that my parents have been with me/us since my surgery a week ago until this time. I couldn’t have made it through this first week without all of their love and support and help in both healing me and caring for Derek, and without all of the love and support and food and hospital visits and airport runs and all else that our wonderful friends and neighbors have provided.