Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 - 5:38 a.m.

Grandmother Has Had a Setback

Tarik's grandmother is still in hospital, where she has been since Christmas Eve after falling backwards down the stairs, hitting her head on the kitchen floor, gashing it open and suffering a major concussion and sub-cranial bleeding.  Since then she has resided in the Neuro-ICU wing of Memorial Hermann Hospital at the Texas Medical Center, and then a regular room in the neuro wing of same.  Her head injury has been healing slowly but surely, and she has been doing better than her doctors expected, especially for someone her age.  She has had excruciating head aches this whole time, which is to be expected.  However, the last week or so she has stopped eating solid foods and will really only drink the Ensure that is given her.  She has also been having attacks of dizziness and is unsteady when she walks, most likely due to an inner ear issue.  We were hoping she would be able to leave this week, and come home to us.  Her Christmas presents are all still sitting under the tree at my mother in law's house, which has not been taken down until she gets out of the hospital.  However, yesterday after they removed her stitches, they did a CT scan which showed that the blood that has pooled under her skull at the base of her brain, which had started to coagulate and then dissipate, has started to re-liquefy, which is causing pressure on her brain and pain.  I believe tomorrow that they are going to perform a trepanation to relieve the pressure.  Trepanation is the cutting of a hole in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain due to a head injury.  It is my understanding that she will not be under anesthesia when they perform this procedure because of the dangers of that drug.  As I mentioned in a previous entry, her survival chances due to her injury, its complications and its side effects are only about 10-20 percent.  This procedure may or may not be helpful, but it is something that they have been putting off since she came in because of the dangers it poses.  And if she continues to refuse food, they may be forced to tube feed her which, for her, would be something most undignified.  They even went so far as to ask the family if she should not be tube fed and allowed to go the natural course and let go, ie: allowed to die.