Katie Grisham says:
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Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to send you guys a quick update on Katie's dad. I know I don't need to say this because all of you know but here it goes...Katie is going through A LOT having to make decisions for her dad, keep everyone updated, be a teacher, a daughter, wife and mommy to little Bella. SO...you can only imagine how crazy it has been balancing all of these things and trying to keep it together. I told her I would be happy to keep all of you updated because she has been fortunate enough to have all of you thinking about her and praying for her and her family. She is so exhausted and emotionally drained she could not put the email together right now but wanted you guys to know what was going on.
Please bare with me. This was a lot of info and a lot of the medical stuff was over my head but I think I've gotten most of it (If not all of it) right.
The recent problem started when her dad started talking funny on Tuesday. He was saying things that weren't fitting into a conversation and it wasn't just the typical "hospital stay psychosis". I think this is something called expressive dysphasia. For example, he was saying it was year 3000 and something when asked the year. She was very alarmed and notified the nurse that was on her dad's case. The nurse said that numerous doctors had been keeping up with him and none of them found anything to be alarming and she didn't know what else could be done. Katie knew something wasn't right but wasn't sure what to do especially after the nurse kept shrugging off her concern. Katie's Mom then tried to talk to the nurse because she knew Katie was very uncomfortable about the whole deal and knew something was wrong. Again, the nurse was hateful to her mom too. Her dad even asked Ms. Kathy about when they were going to get married and if they were planning on having children. Very out of character things. But later might ask when the Tigers were playing again and if it was going to be on TV. So there was pretty odd communication going on.
Wednesday they were preparing for her dad to have another surgical procedure to have the colostomy bag put in. When the surgeon, who Katie really likes, spoke to her dad for 3 minutes or less he immediately called off the surgery. He needed to have some tests run because he knew these were signs that Katie's dad must have had a stroke. Why that horrific nurse didn't listen and know that I do not know!!!!
All day Thursday they ran tests on her dad and the cardiologist met with her yesterday. Her dad has been having mini strokes because the artery going from his heart to his brain, which after looking some of this stuff up I think is the Carotid Artery, is the clogged artery. They cannot go in and clear the clogged artery that is causing the strokes because if they do it will send the bad (I'm thinking plaque but it might be what they use to clear the artery) into his brain. So they are having to put him on blood thinners in order to try and clear up the artery. On top of that...
The blood thinners is a good thing to fix the stroke problem but not when we go back to the Cancer problem. When he went into the hospital he was bleeding from his rectum and the blood thinners can cause that to start again.
ALSO, the cardiologist explained to Katie that everyone is born with a hole in their heart. 75% of the people's hole in their heart closes up on its own but in the other 25% the hole doesn't close up. Katie's dad is one of the 25%. Apparently, a blood clot has lodged into the hole in his heart throughout all of this. Katie's quote "what are the odds of that happening in that exact spot?". If this blood clot ruptures it could cause a massive stroke. SO basically this is a time bomb waiting to happen. On a person who does not have multiple medical conditions like Katie's dad they would immediately go in and have surgery to remove the blood clot and sew the heart up. Due to her dad having all of this going on at once "there isn't a surgeon that would do a procedure on him right now". When the cardiologist told Katie all of this information Katie had a meltdown. OF COURSE! I would have been laying on the floor. This is a horrible situation to be in. She wants to do everything in her power to save her dad's life so she was desperate for advice and told this to the cardiologist. He seemed to feel for her after the meltdown. He told her he would call the best surgeon in Memphis.
The surgeon was supposed to come around the hospital late last night so Katie, Chris and her Mom waited around until about 10:00 p.m. She had to go home and get some rest. She left but told the nurses to have him call her if he came around. The nurses weren't sure if he was still coming around or how late it could be. The new surgeon called her at 12:00 a.m. this morning and went into detail about all that the cardiologist had told her about earlier yesterday. He did seem very positive about working on his case. He said was going to go through some records of her dads and go pretty far back in his history too. He said he would have to talk to every single doctor on the case before he could make the decision whether it was in the best interest to have the surgical procedure to remove the blood clot. He said if he studied the records and spoke to everyone on the case he would be willing to move forward with surgery this weekend. But that is IF he feels like the surgery would be the best move.
I have included Katie in this email because of course she wants to be apart of the emails but it is hard for her to emotionally rehash this event over and over. She is going through what most of us (hopefully) will not have to go through for years with our own parents. Hearing all of it made my head spin. I asked her if we could make dinner for her and Chris or do anything and mainly she just wants to get together and laugh and talk about everyday stuff and have some time away from the madness. Maybe we can all get together again soon even if it is just an hour. This is a nightmare for her. I know there is a great purpose that God has for all of this going on it is just really hard to see right now. And her dad is lucky to have such a loving and caring daughter going through this with him and really handling it all on her own for him since he still doesn't know what is going on. We are so blessed to have each other and I am reminded of this every day when we go through struggles and have each other to turn to.
Lets keep praying ladies!!!!!!!! And Katie if you have to correct some of this I'm sorry. :( Love you all very much, Katie G.
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