Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005 - 8:19 a.m.

A not very Merry Christmas

I wish that I could have awoken this morning to a merrier world. Tarik's 83 year old, INDEPENDENTLY MINDED, grandmother got up in the night to get a drink and fell down the stairs, bashing her head. There was alot of blood, but that is typical for a head laceration. She was knocked unconscious, but came to on her own. Life Flight was called to transport her to the Texas Medical Center and the finest trauma center in the world. She suffered a concussion, cerebral hematoma, and has sub cranial bleeding, aka, bleeding between her skull and her brain. She is aware of her surroundings. She is NOT happy to be there, and is sedated because she is in a great amount of pain. She is in neurological ICU will all kinds of tubes protruding from all over. She has her own constant care nurse.  The doctors did not sugar coat this. Her injury, at her age has an extremely high mortality rate to the tune of 80 - 90 percent.  However, she DID make it through the night and she IS aware of her surroundings.  At this time, however, there is nothing that can be done to help her other than to make her comfortable and hope that the bleeding stops.  There is a surgical remedy, but at her age, it would most likely cause more problems than alleviate the injury she has.  We are just in a holding pattern right now and can only wait.