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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:17 am
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At 10:30 PM on Thursday August 26, our resident Raccoon, and cookie supplier, had brain surgery.
In the week leading up to this, he was acting less and less like himself. He was eating less and less, sleeping less and less, and his sentences were becoming less complete. At first I thought it might have been fatigue, due to his hectic life and schedule. But that was not the case. On the day before Aretoo even left his phone at home and wasn't able to finish his sentences when he was on his way home. Wednesday evening he was waiting in the waiting room for 4 hours with no assistance. My mom and I took him home and fed him. Thursday morning he was able to sleep in and got some more to eat. To my eyes he seemed to improve. He contacted his boss and wanted to pick up his car. But between here and there something seemed to go wrong. He was admitted to the hospital again, and had a series of MRI's run on him. They found an abscess in his brain that was causing his symptoms. As of Midnight Thursday he was out from under the knife, and recovering in his own room.
I felt SO useless as I was waiting at home to hear if Aretoo was going to be alright. I was scared, anxious, and nervous whenever I heard the phone ring. Now that it looks like the hard part is over I hope to be able to come to grips at how this turned out.
Spoon fed: Experiences at hospitals injuries, Worrying about family/loved ones Stress relief methods
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:27 am
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I know this has been a rough ride for the both of you. An abscess is usually leftovers from an infection, from what I understand. Hopefully now that it is drained, it will not reoccur, and aretooie will be back to his witty and clever self in a short period of time.
Hospitals are no fun, but sitting in the ER waiting room for 4 hours without assistance is the norm here in the land of publicly funded healthcare (an ER visit costs nothing... just like a medical clinic or a doctor's appointment). I have had a handful of ER visits myself (coughing up blood, severe abdominal pain that turned out to be gall bladder attacks, chest pains, more gall bladder attacks that the walk-in clinic wouldn't deal with...) and I think my shortest wait was 3 hours. There happened to be a doctor nearby when I saw the triage nurse that time, and he authorised them to give me some tylenol. My longest wait was between 6 and 8 hours in the middle of the night (I took a taxi to the hospital. That was the first time I went in for my gall bladder, before I knew wtf was going on. I thought for sure I was dying). That was pretty hilarious considering I have a heart defect and the pain was radiating through my chest, and no one knew anything was up with my gall bladder. Someone with a known heart condition shows up at the emergency room in the middle of the night with severe chest and abdominal pain... hm, you would think someone might have bumped me up the queue a bit.
Wait times are retarded like that because people go to the hospital instead of going to a doctor. The emergency room is for emergencies that a medicentre or a general practitioner's office is not equipped to deal with. *shakes fist*
Anyways, I was rambling. OH YEAH I just remembered about the thing you were saying in the IRC about hospitals and germs. My sister-in-law is a cardiac nurse. She comes home from work, immediately changes her clothing and has a shower, and then hugs her husband and children. No one is allowed to touch her until after she has changed and showered.
Anyways, I can't sleep because there is almost certainly a critter or some critters of some sort or another intermittently munching on either some invisible part of my dresser or the inside of my bedroom wall. So I am rambling here instead of sleeping. I hope that having the pus drained out and taking antibiotics for a weeks or so is all that aretoo needs to be put right again. The fact that they are calling it an abscess is positive.
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:01 am
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:25 am
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:09 am
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:10 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:23 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:21 pm
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Jafthasleftthebuilding Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:19 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:48 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:37 am
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Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:17 am
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Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 12:51 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:30 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:29 pm
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