Day 6 - June 6, 2008

Kevin had a stroke tonight. Well, let me rephrase - we found out tonight that Kevin had a stroke at some point over the past two days. It was really a bad day.

I will start with the fact that Kev was just thrashing and gagging over the ventilator a good part of today. I had to sit and watch while they suctioned him out and the poor guy about comes right off the bed when they do it. I honestly can't imagine the fear he feels, the pain he is in. I must tell him 15 times a day where he is and why he's there (not the whole truth - just that he was in an accident).

So anyway, this afternoon he had a new nurse and she noticed that when he was thrashing he seemed to be turning his arms and hands at a weird angle. She immediately called all the docs and they did a CT Scan. Apparently when you move this way it generally is caused by a certain form of brain damage.

Well, it turns out that Kev had a stroke in the same area of the brain that was already damaged. A neurosurgeon was called in and they did an emergency surgery to remove the fluid that was building up around his brain. That tube will be left attached to the right side of his brain I guess until it's safe to take out. On a good note - I was informed that if Kevin had not had the left part of his skull removed, he would have died. The fluid would have caused his brain to swell and it would have pushed down on the brain stem causing him to die. Thank goodness for those docs in Afghanistan. And thank goodness for the docs here as well.

I also want to quickly say that y'all can't imagine the docs and nurses here. The neurosurgeon actually cried with us tonight. He said to us "I am so proud of you - this is a very severe injury" and then he had to walk away before breaking down. When I went in to see Kev after the surgery (I didn't go the whole way in as he needed to rest - I just needed to see him) I was crying pretty bad and so was Breezy so the nurse stopped what she was doing and just grabbed both of us and held us while we cried. I honestly feel we are in the best place we could possibly be in.