State of Mind

[Kusaragi]

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  

[Kalstolyn]

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.  

[Taeryyn]

*huggles*

Oh my god, Kusa. sad I'm so sorry to hear that, the past few days must have been horrible.

I hope Aretoo gets better quickly. ;__; *hugs again for good measure*  

[Chexley]

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts.
There they are a'standing in a row!

I hope Aretoo gets better.

My mother was in and out of the hospital for years because of a surgical screw up by a doctor, whom she sued and lost to when the evidence of his outrageous result was quite obvious on her body.

"Give them a twist, a flick of the wrist!"
That's what the showman said!

 

[Taeryyn]

In regards to stress relief methods...I find it helpful to run. Or, to go and distract myself by being silly in the irc. Cuddling up with our cat helps, too.

Swimming is my ultimate stress-reliever, but I rarely get to do it.  

[God-Raped-Me]

Oh holy big news batman! Make sure Aretoo knows we're all thinking about him.

As for hospitals, I hate them and avoid them like the plague! I don't mind going when someone else is there but if I should be in the hospital... basically people have to knock me out and drag me to one.

I'm constantly worried about the ones I love, hell Lydia is starting school and all that runs through my mind is "is she going to be ok n the care of a freaking stranger?!" Odd as I want to become a teacher myself... that fear shouldn't exist....

I usually draw to relive my stress, I find that scribbling a picture down is a great way to get rid of all that negative emotion, however it usually shows that I was in a negative mood....

Anywhoo, I hope you're holding up well too! Aretoo should be home soon and you guys can get everything back on track! Keep us posted if anything changes too!  

[Kusaragi]

Alright. I have good news for everyone. The abcess was caused by Toxo, and is a common condition for people with immunity issues. It's EXTREMELY curable so they already got him the specific drugs that can combat it. I'm home for a little while to walk the dog and inform people of the good news. It's a weight off my chest, knowing that this is something simple. ^_^  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

What is Toxo? >_>  

[Kalstolyn]

It's short for toxoplasmosis.  

[[ Terra ]]

I remember hearing about toxo somewhere before. I'm glad to hear that it is something treatable. It must have been so scary for all of you.

My own most recent hospital experience was two weeks ago tomorrow. I dislocated my left knee cap. If this sounds like a familiar story, I have dislocated my right patella before only last time I had to wait for hours before they put it back in whereas this time I didn't have to wait at all - the benefit of having a painful accident on a Sunday morning while everyone is still asleep and hung over in their beds. The doctor never had time to come see me though, possibly due to the car accident that came in after me, so the nurses just had to pass back and forth conflicting messages about me from him and there was confusion all 'round. The car accident guys were going to be okay but one of them had some really nasty injuries.

As for stress relief, I like to exercise. Try going for a jog or a bike ride.

Please let Aretoo know that we all love him and have him in our thoughts. *Hugs for both of you*  

[Xikrai the Risen]

I hope aretoo is alright and gets better with no problems. You guys will get through this. heart  

[Kusaragi]

Good news. Aretoo is home safe and sound. He has a TON of meds that he needs to keep track of (And I'll help whenever I can.) he has a bunch of staples in his head (Which we will take pictures of) and I'm going to have to figure out a way for him to relax... while keeping him busy... It's going to be an interesting week.  

[wakusei]

Thinking of you guys!

I hope aretoo feels good as new soon! heart