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| Willy |
It started the beginning of summer (around June 4th) 2000. I had the weekend off from work in the city so I went up north to spend time with my family like usual, Thursday through Monday afternoon. Saturday night mom, dad, my sister, and I went to a family friends birthday party. Dad was not feeling the best of himself but he went anyways. Monday afternoon we were invited over to ny aunt's house to have dinner. While at my aunts house my dad continued to complain of an intense headache, he is not the one to complain so we knew it was pretty bad when he held an icepack to his forehead. That afternoon left around 1 pm to leave for the city to work the night shift.
That Tuesday morning when I got off work I returned home to find several messages on my telephone answering machine. One from my brother who also lives in the city telling me that my dad is in the hospital and two from my brother and sister that still live at home. For as much as I can remember dad has never been in the hospital so this scared me. It was about 7:30 AM. I called my sister because mom was at work and asked her what was wrong. She told me that his headache had gotten far worse, he still had not eaten anything solid since around Sunday, he could not keep anything down. He had the chills and a high temp. I called my mom at work and asked her why she felt that she had to go to work. She had said the doctors thought that he had gotten sepsis or a bit of the flu.
It was almost 8:00 AM and I had a really uneasy feeling about all this. (This is going to make me cry) I felt compelled to call a friend of mine that I work with. She is a wonderful christian and we have had many wonderful conversations about faith so I called her and woke her up. I asked her "could you please pray for my dad"?, something is not right with him. I told her I was sorry to wake her up and she said that was fine because she had to get up early to get her hair done.
I went to bed and prayed "God, please give me a hint, one sign what could be wrong with my dad, something is not right." I felt foolish, doubtful, and thought maybe I am over reacting. Well, a couple hours later my friend called back and said, "I was talking to my beautician and felt that I needed to tell her about your dad." She said "her son who was two years old, had the same symptoms, and it was encephalitis, the one way to find out was by doing a lumbar puncture." I could not get off the phone fast enough. I called my mom at the hospital (someone replaced her at work) and asked if they had run that test which they hadn't. I told her to be persistent and ask that this test be done.
On Wednesday, I called my brother and asked him if he could get off work to go up north to see dad in the hospital. At this time the doctors still thought he had a bit of the flu. One of the nurses said his case sounded like DDT which is alcohol withdrawals. But my dad doesn't drink more than 2 drinks a week. Dad by then still had a bad headache, high fever, was very drowsy and had difficulty walking straight and now was starting to talk strange. My brother and I had gotten to the hospital around 4 PM. They had done the lumbar puncture at noon, they diagnosed him with encephalitis, and started him on the antivirals.
I tried talking to dad, mom asked him if he knew who I was and he called me a potato. He could talk but nothing made sense. He was very restless. He had torn his IV out at least 3 times. It took both my brothers to keep him in bed and help him walk to the bathroom. He kept thinking that he had to be at work or fix things. He did not recognize anyone. I tried feeding him and he would chew on it the take it out of his mouth. I was only able to get him to drink some juice.
Thursday we decided to send him to Fargo, North Dakota which was the best choice we ever made. He was put in intensive care. Dad remained in intensive care for more than two weeks. They put him on a ventilator because he started to have difficulty breathing in part as a result of his pneumonia. The staff put in IV's and began tube feeding him. They put restraints on him and then put him into an induced coma because he was extremely restless. For two weeks he was like this until he started breathing on his own. The doctors gave us the grimmest report, they said he would be lucky to make it back 70% and that would take two years at least.
Well after lots of therapy he was able to return home around the first week of July. This was a new challenge. We had to take all the keys and batteries out of all the farm equipment and vehicles. Dad almost drove the tractor into the barn.. He had his mind set that he had to get farm work done like takeing bales of hay off the field. Dad would only listen to me when I tried to explain why he was not supposed to do things like this and what happened to his brain. He would remember this for almost and hour then I would have to repeat it all. He wore out very easy which was not a surprise because he had lost at least 40 pounds in the past month, most of which I am sure was muscle. He would occasionally hallucinate.
I would take him for drives and one really touching time he had asked me to bring him to the church. I have never seen my dad cry so hard and beg christ for help. My dad is not a small man, picture a big man on his knees in an empty church which echoed at any whisper, praying and crying at the front of the church at the alter.
Well to shorten my story a bit. It is now the end off November of 2000. His mind has gotten so much better! He will have occasional memory lapses. He is allowed to drive again, and go back to work, and is done with therapy. He keeps a note book for himself at all times to write down what he is going to do next, which helps him a lot. He is a much happier man, and thankful for his second chance to live. He is more open with his feelings, cries with joy when any of us kids come home to visit and give him a hug. I would say he is over a 100% better. He believes christ has taken all part in his life. I thank everyone of my friends who have prayed for my dad because they too saved my dad. I don't consider this a bad, horrible dreaded thing that happened because it has changed my outlook on life. Enjoy every day and life. I could keep going and talking but I will stop here. I would enjoy the chance to talk with any one and get email's. God bless.
Love.
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Willy
Minnesota, U.S.A.
Posted: November 23, 2000 |
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