Updates on David

Thank you, to my cousin Dan,  for getting the blog going and showing me how to load the posts myself.  Thanks also to Barbara Scheele for handling the incoming emails too.  I see some of you have posted your support as comments on the updates, and that way others can read them too.   Thanks for all that, more than you can know.

Sue is safely on her way back to Florida and I telephoned her today with the update that the neurosurgeons removed the ICP sensor from David’s head this morning, this because they are happy with the stability of his brain pressure.  It takes time for his body to do this healing and his resting this past week has been very helpful.  The sedation has been off for about 24 hours, but he is still on a little pain medicine.

They are reducing the medications as much as possible so that in the next few days he can flush all the medicines from his system and start working on recovery.  Today was a very encouraging day.  His eyes are tracking movements in the room and I have the TV on now for him, which I know he loves.  He is still sleeping a lot, but moving and reacting more.

Some of David’s friends within the hospital staff came by to see me today and they are all very encouraging and supportive, he is doing great.  Our next goal is still getting the tubes out.  Our focus is on balancing comfort and rehabilitation and I know the doctors are all working towards that too.

I will update you tomorrow with the good news of the day.

Warmest regards,

Drew

Each day we take small steps on a long journey. We must try hard to control our expectations and live within the bounds of the progress that he makes and know that any progress is progress.

I want the updates to be informative and honest so you can all share in his accomplishments and so that everyone can have David in their thoughts and prayers and understand the hope and prospects for a full recovery. I hope you find it helpful to cope with the long process as I am trying to.

As planned, today was the day to lower the sedation and see if he is ready to wake up. It would be a great step forward to get him come off the respirator if he is able to swallow and control his own airway. He was off of sedation most of the day, and his eyes were more open. David was able to point one finger, on command. He was not ready to come off the respirator and he might not be for a few days more, we will have to see what his progress is each day. It may take a few days for the sedative to wear off completely and get out of his system to know his neurological status.

Sue is returning home to Florida to take care of her family tomorrow, and will be back when David will need her help later on. She has been a great support and I expect that to continue daily when she gets home. I know it will be hard for her as it is for me.

Seeing his eyes open is a blessing. There is a lot of breath-holding as we wait for other functions to come back, and this will take days, and more. Getting him off the machines means that more assessments can be made and physical and occupational therapy can be thought about for the future.

His immediate comfort, and the stabilization off the machines is our current goal and what they work on each day with great attention. Again, the staff is wonderful and he could not be getting any better care.

Thanks again for all your continued support.

Drew

Things are going about how the doctors expect right now, which is a good thing.

There is no medicine to speed the process along, the only treatment for this type of brain injury is rest time.  David is sedated so that he continues to rest. His brain pressure has not increased, and is very slowly lowering. It is higher when he is less sedated, but not fluctuating as much.

Each day they stop the sedation for a little while and do neurological tests which continue to be very hopeful.  Today, while Sue and I were there, he tried to open his eyes (even with the sedation, which he is becoming accustomed to). Although he hears us in the room talking to him, we’re told, the sedation will thankfully keep him from remembering any of this ordeal.

We are hopeful that the original plan by the doctors to remove the breathing tube on Monday is still possible, meaning he is progressing. It is still very critical for him, however, and we are all focused on his comfort and recovery.  The staff at the hospital is terrific and treating him very well. The decision will be up to the doctors and it may be later in the week, depending on his brain pressure readings.

On a lighter note, I took some of the cookies baked from the store yesterday (using David’s dough he had made in advance) to the nurses this morning. They all went wild over them of course.  I was silently “qvelling” (Yiddish, sorry, it means in one word what a paragraph would say about how proud I was of his accomplishments) so it inspired me to go on with the day’s project with Sue of making up more batches of dough using his recipe so that we would not run out at the store.  We did an ‘okay’ job (thank you Sue!), and our customers will like them I am sure, but we’ll all look forward to the day that David can make them himself again.

I am hoping that Monday will be a step forward. I will be updating each afternoon for a few days to keep you all informed.

Thank you for the cards and messages of support.  David’s warm heart and personality have touched the lives of so many and I am thankful for all your kind words and prayers.

Drew

The outpouring of support and affection for David and me has been wonderful and heartwarming, thank you all so very, very much.

Today (Thursday) the neurosurgeon (Dr. Carver) removed the drain as planned. David’s ICP (intracranial pressure) is now pretty steady, even when he is more awake or they are moving him around, this is an improvement.  The CT scan this morning showed reduced region affected by the stroke.  All this is a sign his body is healing.  All his other signs and functions are working as they should be (his blood pressure is stable with only one medication) and his complexion and general appearance are now back to normal.  His neurological tests were good on both sides, including his feet, and the nurse said he has a good strong pulse in his feet (and elsewhere) so these are all great signs.  His temperature is normal and his general circulation is good.

The plan is for him to stay sedated and at rest for a few more days so his body can heal. It may be Monday before they consider taking the breathing tube out and then they can reduce the sedation levels so he can wake up more often and start the recuperation process.

For those of you that were concerned about his circulation, David is resting on a new high-tech air bed that keeps moving him around all day to prevent pooling and, from time to time, the respiratory therapist comes in and makes the bed toss him around to shake up his lungs too.  A real E-ticket*** ride.

I am going to give Barbara a rest for the weekend and will do the next update on Monday unless something big happens one way or the other.

I wanted to let you all know that April 3 is Doris Day’s birthday, and Magic 63 (AM 630 for local folks) does a broadcast all day that is streamed on the internet.  We normally sponsor this each year and it means a lot to David. Doris Day was a customer of David’s when he was at Brinton’s many years ago and he used to bring back gifts for her dogs when he went on trips to Germany.  This year the station is sponsoring the event in our name for David and I know he will be touched and deeply appreciative.  I am holding out hope that he is awake by then to be able to listen through the day.  I will email out the streaming link in the update next week for any of you around the world that might want to listen in.

Here’s hoping for continued improvement over the weekend.

With sincere appreciation to all of you,

Drew

I often hear ‘no news is good news’, but in this case I know everyone would like to hear what’s happening.

Today David was off the sedative for a little while in the afternoon while Sue, Gerda, and I were there in rotation.  I was there when he grabbed my hand as he woke up a little, and when the nurse tested his reactions on both sides.  He did have feeling on the left side today (foot) so that is
encouraging.  Later, Sue and Gerda were there when his eyes were open for a little while and he did grab the nurses hand when she moved him up in the bed.  He is back on sedation for the night.  The stroke area is healing internally, according to the CT scans, and his body functions are working ok.  As comforting as this is however, he is still in rough waters.

The staff at the hospital is great, and he is getting excellent care. I am sure he appreciates all your thoughts and prayers, I know I do.

Drew

Today was a better day than yesterday. At this point every bit of news that is not bad has to be good.

Sue and I spoke with the care team nurses and Dr. Taub this morning.  Dr. Carver has examined David and the plan is still the same.  Since the plan was to leave him on sedation today, Sue and I spent a few hours at the house doing some chores to de-stress and get ourselves back together after yesterday.

I just got back from a second trip to the hospital this evening.  David is still on sedation and the respirator of course.  His vital signs are all
where they should be and his temperature, which had been slightly elevated Sunday, has come back down.  During the day today they lowered the sedation and he was able to wake a little.  He was able to squeeze his right hand in response to command.

His status is still hour to hour and far from certain.

I put up some pictures in the room so that the care staff would know a little more about David and all his friends out there thinking about him.
There are pictures of Winston and Clementine of course, David graduating from Cordon Bleu, some pictures of or trip a few years ago in Connecticut when we stayed over with our dear friends Don and Edward, and the goofy onion goggles picture from the Meals on Wheels Benefit (typical David!).

There is one from 17 years ago on our ‘second date’ with me, David, and his entire entourage of friends (Alex, Ingo, Muriel, Dan, Wilfred, and some other folks, all eating someplace in Monterey.  Its one of my favorites since I remember that as the moment I knew he had me hooked.

We just were awarded best gourmet shop by the Coast Weekly, so I put up the little article talking about David and me, the store, our relationship, and David’s energetic personality, so they can know David as we know him.

This morning Mike Cleary and Kevin Kahl on Magic 63 took a minute to tell the listeners about David’s situation in a really nice and thoughtful way and it was very heartwarming.  David has a big following that listen to the station, especially for David’s time on the air with Mike and Kevin on Wednesday mornings.  David was to have called in from the Housewares show in Chicago, where we were to have been this weekend.

Well, that is where we are today.  Tomorrow is another day.

Drew

Our dear friend and angel, Barbara Scheele, has volunteered to send out the updates from now on and to help me answer any email questions. Her email is barbara.scheele@gmail.com.

I need to focus on being with David right now and keeping everything else glued together.

You may remember Barbara as the talented and spiritual leader of our wedding ceremony just over 16 years ago this month.  Any messages you want to send you can email Barbara, and she’ll collect them and keep Sue and me spiritually lifted, but the emotion is all a bit too much right now.  I may not be able to respond right now to all your emails but they’re appreciated and I know David is hearing all your thoughts and prayers.

This may all be too much info, so if you would rather not get the info, please let Barbara know and she will change the broadcast list.

Currently David is back in ICU resting more comfortably than yesterday, but I have to say that today was the hardest day in my life.

While Sue and I were each on the way to the hospital this morning they did an emergency procedure to reduce pressure on David’s brain from the stoke area.  He had become unresponsive and comatose early this morning.  Dr. Carver, the other neurosurgeon (the one that fixed my left leg by the way) was on call and in consultation with Dr. Dimitrov chose the action to do the emergency surgery immediately.  They, in essence, saved his life again this morning.

David is now sedated and resting ‘comfortably’ with a continuing drain on the stroke area.  David is able to breath normally, but for his comfort he is on a respirator and a feeding tube.  He has not been awake since the emergency surgery this morning. Yesterday he was uncomfortable not being allowed any water and only glucose IV, so right now he is actually resting and healing better than yesterday when he was ‘more awake’.  The plan is to awaken him tomorrow, possibly Wednesday instead, and make the treatment plan decisions then based on that info.  It will be at least a week before we can really know how this will then progress.

Right now the in-room visitation is limited to Sue, Gerda, Barbara and myself.  No information is being released by phone and it is not possible for us to come to the phone there at the hospital.  I know he will appreciate any notes, letters or cards in a few weeks when we are hoping he will be with-it enough to read them.  I hope you’ll all understand that I have a basket for them and can’t face opening any of them right now so they’ll wait for him to get better and we’ll enjoy them together.

In case you are wondering my BP was 138/78 today, so yes, I am taking care of myself and my cataract eye surgery 2 weeks ago was both uneventful and wonderful at the same time.

I know we are in your hearts and minds throughout.  The best info will come by email from Barbara every few days or so unless there is something more significant to report.  We are hoping that we are on the right path and can start talking about physical therapy again soon, but right now we are back to basic survival.

I will be in touch through Barbara as much as I can.  Thanks for understanding.

Drew

Sue and I spent most of the day at the hospital with David, spoke with Dr. Dimitrov, the neurologist (mine too, and a frequent customer as well) and Dr. Taub, the Intensive Care doctor.  He is in the intensive care center at SVMH which is a great facility and everyone there could not be nicer, or more obviously on top of everything.  He could not be getting any better care anywhere.  David has a full time personal nurse team that does nothing but sit with him and monitor his status and knows 1000% of what is happening with him and his progress and care.

This will be a three to four month recovery process and while David will certainly survive this there will be a lot of work to be done.  He will be
in ICU for some time, then in another part of the hospital once he can feed himself, then after several weeks he will move to an in-patient stroke facility.  There is a spectacular new one here in town which many have said is the best.  Dr. Dimitrov assured us that if there was any possibility that moving David to Stanford or elsewhere would help him that he would not hesitate to recommend it.  David won’t be at home for quite some time.

I certainly appreciate all the outpouring of support and affection for David and me from everyone.  I know David does too and he knows he is in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.  We’re not having visitors to the ICU until David makes more progress. He can not speak with anyone right now and the ICU team will only release info to myself and Sue. Once he can communicate more clearly and we feel he understands the situation and the recovery process then will be time for those locally to visit and share their support with him, until then I will certainly share it with him.

The diagnosis has not changed from yesterday and the area of his brain where the leakage occurred is about the same.  His blood pressure is stabilized and they are working to find out if there is any cause for the high blood pressure more than just heredity. David’s other parts, including his sense of humor, are all intact and working well.  He only has a bruise on his arm from the airbag.  There is a good chance that he will recover his left side, but we will take that day by day by day.

I will keep in touch in a few days when there is more progress, or if there is any change in the news.

Drew

Just arrived from NY and now home from the hospital.

David suffered a stroke on his right side, affecting the left side of his body. This was not an aneurism or anything related to clots or arterial
blockage, it was a ‘leakage’, likely result of high blood pressure. This happened while he was in the car, near the Monterey Airport, after he had dropped off the dog with our friend Dick in preparation for his trip to meet me in Chicago for the weekend.  [edited: According to the paper the highway was closed for a time and there were other cars involved, but there was only one person transported to the hospital].  The airbags kept him from serious injury except a bruise on his arm.  He totaled the Escape which he remembers. 

Structurally he is fine.  He will be in intensive care for a number of days and quite a lot of recovery after that.  His speech is clear, when he gets a few words out (he spoke a little French when I was talking to the nurse about Paris).  He has some movement and other activity returning to his left side.  I will know more tomorrow when I can compare his activity in the day to night.  The neurologist, who we both happen to know, has said he believes that David will heal without surgery. He is responsive, but still a ways to go before he is able to get out of bed or start physical therapy.  They have done several scans and the swelling is going down and while it is never good to be in this situation, he will survive.  His other signs and internal organs are all fine, cholesterol, blood sugar, etc, etc.   He is not on any medications other than to control his blood pressure and is not on any pain medications.  He is on a glucose IV and they may change to a soft food tube in a few days. He wanted the TV on so he could sleep, so that’s a good sign.

We are very blessed that Ellen Thorpe, Nick’s mom (for those of you that know Nick from his years working in the store), was working the emergency room when David was brought in and knew exactly who he is.  David’s cell phone was dead and his contact info on file at the hospital was very old so she asked Nick to run over to David’s Mom’s house and get Dick, who called Gerda, etc, etc.  David’s sister Sue has arrived from Florida and will be here to help for a week which is great.

Needless to say David is not going to Paris next week.

I will be at the hospital tomorrow most of the day, headed to bed for now.

Thanks for the well wishes.   Talk to you tomorrow.

Drew