Initial Post

I have started this blog at the suggestion of a friend, as I am unable to respond to all of the telephone and e-mail inquiries being made about Wynne’s condition. I am spending a great deal of time in the ICU and am unable to use my cell phone or get internet access while there. Alternately, I intend to write updates and then post them at times when I leave the ICU. I apologize to those of you whose phone calls I have not yet returned and to those friends and family who I have not yet had a chance to notify – it has been very busy. If you are aware of others who I have not contacted who would want to access this blog, please provide them with the information along with my apologies for not having been in touch yet.

Some of you are already aware of the course of events, but many who will access this site have not been briefed on what has occurred to date. For you, I will try to go over the chain of events to date.

We had a fairly typical Saturday night (Oct. 11). We watched Saturday Night Live and Wynne fell asleep on the sofa while watching (also pretty typical). I woke her up to come to bed somewhere between 12:30 and 1 AM. She came in, removed her contacts, brushed her teeth and went to sleep. At about 4AM, I woke up to a noise and noticed Wynne was not in bed. I found her on the floor. She was unable to stand, appeared to have no muscle control on the left side of her body and had very slurred speech. I called 911 and informed them that I believed Wynne had had a stroke. I woke Sydney and had her open the gate and flag down EMS when they arrived, while I cleared a path for gurney. When leaving for the hospital, I called Donna & Ed (i.e., Wynne’s Mom & Step-dad) who were staying in Dallas after the OU vs UT football game.

Wynne was then taken to College Station Medical Center ER and they performed a CT scan to ensure that there was no brain bleed prior to using TPA (to break up the clot). She was subsequently given the TPA and was accidentally also given heparin by the nursing staff. Fortunately, this did not appear to result in any bleeding in the brain. Unfortunately, it took much longer to get her started on the TPA than I would have hoped. Despite this, the TPA did appear to have a positive impact on the stroke and Wynne regained muscle tone in her left leg, left foot and arm (but not to her l. hand or l. facial muscles), her speech did seem to improve somewhat during this time.

Later on Sunday, she was moved to Bed 10 in the ICU (where she remains as of today -10/14/08). As brain swelling began late on Sunday, Wynne lost some her initial gains and is not able to move her left arm at this time, but remains able to move her left leg and foot.

Since the stroke, Wynne has been experiencing a great deal on muscle tension and pain on the right (i.e., unaffected) side of her body. Her doctors have been providing large doses of painkillers to help her deal with this issue.

Despite the pain, Wynne has maintained her sense of humor throughout this. When told by a nurse that they were going to catheterize her whenever she was ready; Wynne replied, “Is anybody ever ready to be catheterized?”

The hospital was able to perform an MRI this morning at about 8 AM, which should give us a great deal more information in the near future. We should also know more about how she is doing by this weekend, when the brain swelling should diminish.

Donna, Ed and I have been taking shifts staying with Wynne in the ICU. The staff here strive very hard to limit access to ICU patients which is good on one hand (as Wynne needs a great deal of rest to recover from this injury), however, they have also made it difficult at times for immediate family to come in and stay with her. It just seems to depend on who is at the desk at the time. Flowers, food, etc. are not allowed into the ICU. A few balloons have been smuggled in (much to the dismay of Nurse Ratchett), but I am pretty certain that most delivery services will not be able to get anything to her until she gets moved out of ICU.

Sydney is doing well all things considered. She was able to make it to her first volleyball game of the season last night and her team ("The Elite") swept their match 3 games to 0. Sydney was a star and landed all of her serves in bounds and then dug out some very difficult to return shots and got them back over the net to score numerous points for her team.

So…I (and likely others who are in close contact with the situation) will post updates as things progress. I apologize again to those I haven’t had a chance to contact or to return calls to.

Please e-mail me with any thoughts or wishes that you would like me to convey to Wynne or Sydney. If you call my cell phone and it is turned off (i.e., while I'm in the ICU), it will not make a record of the number you called from, so please leave your number when you leave a voice mail and I will get back to you when I am able. Please do not call the ICU at College Station Medical Center unless there is an emergency which needs to be addressed right away. For those of you who have provided help and support - thank you so much – I can’t begin to explain how much this means to our family right now. Thank you.

R