Today we went to the doctor. Tank's foot is coming along alright I guess. The doctor yelled at him for walking on it too much. But he said it didn't look bad. We go back next week for another check.
Now back to the stroke.
In the ER, we waited for 3 hours, since we just told them he had a headache. They're not going to put a rush on that. But once we got back into the actual examination room, things went faster. And once the ER doc heard that he had had this headache for three days with throwing up and no fever, alarm bells went off and he ordered a CAT scan. This of course made Tank and me stand up and pay attention. See, even now, we were both still thinking he'd be getting a shot for the pain and we'd head home. So the CAT scan meant there was something really wrong. And we just didn't have time for that. Especially right here before Christmas.
They wheeled him back and I waited but not for too long. And it wasn't much longer after they brought Tank back to the exam room that the attending doc came in and gave us the news. Yes, there was something on the scan. It was either a stroke, a tumor or a bleed. Of the three, the stroke was the preferable option, he said. Ugh.
So they wheeled him up to his room and I came up long enough to make sure he was settled in ok and someone had given him a sandwich. Once the nurse started getting him ready for bed and giving him all his drugs, I gave him a kiss and headed home. It was already midnight.
When I came back the next morning, I brought a change of clothes and Tank's phone. Somehow I still believed this was no big deal, they had made a mistake, and he'd be coming home today. I waited around in Tank's room for a little while alone, since he was out having tests run. When they brought him back, they said he'd gone out for another CAT scan, an MRI, and some other things that I can't remember now.
Tank was all drugged up, too. He was on a lot of pain killers but his head still hurt. Soon, the neurologist came in and explained to me what had happened.
Tank had most definitely had a stroke. It was the kind where the vessels pop in your head as opposed to the kind where a clot breaks loose and causes blockage. He had swelling on his brain that they had to get down. Also, his blood pressure was through the roof, so he had to go to ICU immediately.
I realized then that he wasn't coming home that day.
I wasn't able to go with them when they took him to ICU. I had to wait out in the waiting room while they got him in his room there. Once he was in and hooked up to everything, the nurse called me back. That was on a Sunday, and I don't remember much of the rest of that day. Except Tank apologizing, and then saying "So, I guess I'm not going home then?" He was in so much pain and was on so many drugs that he really had no idea what was going on.
More later.
