Day 5 - Morning

My brother Ryan offered to stay with Jake last night and was kind enough to write up this morning's post for me. He's been spending a lot of time at the hospital and is becoming more knowledgeable than he probably ever wanted to be about medical terms, medications, brain function, etc.

Good morning all, 

Here's an update from last night while I stayed with Jake. 

His night was better then the night before. His ICP (cerebral pressure) and blood pressure was under control with the exception of ICP increasing a little higher then they want around 4:15am. But they were able to bring it down with meds.

Right now it's a delicate balance of meds while they are treating various things. For example, currently he's in the stage (4 to 10 days from a ruptured aneursym) where vasospasms appear which causes blood vessels to restrict.  In order to relax the blood vessels they are giving him nimodapine but this immediately causes the blood pressure to drop so another med is given to help get that back up.  If blood vessels restrict to much then not enough blood gets to that part of the brain and can cause additional brain damage. At this point, we know there is "some" brain damage from the aneurysm so they are trying to prevent more from occurring.  The extent of the brain damage is unknown until he's off the sedation which will likely be at least another 4 to 7 days.  It's best for him to be sedated so he is more comfortable with the breathing tube, IV's, etc. It'll keep him more relaxed so he can heal and stabilize.

They will do another ultrasound around 8am to check for the vasospams. 

Specific prayers for today

1.  Vasospasms do not appear

2.  Continues to respond well to the feeding tube formula

3.  His blood pressure and ICP are stable without having to use so many meds

Ryan