Hi I would like to share my story and hoping others can give me some advice and support. On Friday 21st June my 55 year old husband left for work at 7.30am. We live in a lovely village in Cheshire called Parkgate. We have a 19 year old son and a 14 year old daughter and two dogs Benji and Chloe. He works in our local pub as a maintenance man and I have my own beauty shop, life was good and we were looking forward to the weekend. I received a phone call at 12pm to say he had collapsed at work from my son. When I arrived there was an ambulance already there. I honestly thought he may have fell from the ladder as he hates heights and
had been painting that week. However his face was dropped and he was sweating. the ambulance crew told me he had suffered a stroke and his BP was reading 250/120. We were rushed to arrowe park and straight through to resus. After what felt like hours my son and I were allowed to see him and we were told that he was lucky to have made it to the hospital, he had suffered a massive bleed on the left hand side of his brain, which had affected the entire right hand side of his body. The consultants asked me would I like to take
part in a trial that patients receive an injection that could stop bleeding, I was in a daze, I agreed and said anything to help him. He was then transferred to the acute stroke unit and put in a side room. The following hours he was monitored every five mins and they were struggling to get the BP lowered. On the Saturday morning the doctor told me that he had contracted pneumonia and there was nothing that really could be done, apart from make him comfortable and that I should consider a DNR as it would be unfair to inflict further pain. I honestly thought I was going to collapse and was waiting to wake from this nightmare. I asked all our immediate family and friends to attend the hospital that day and I spent the evening at his beside with my mother. On the Sunday morning another consultant came to see him, she was looking at him and then asked me to step outside, I braced myself for the news. She sat me down and said he was very poorly, but…she felt it was SURVIVABLE. I broke down, she told me she couldn’t guarantee he would live and the road ahead would be very long, but she was going to try, she ordered a feeding tube and said he would be given antibiotics to try and fight the pneumonia and various BP medication to try and get on top of the BP. She felt the bleed was caused by the BP and that the swelling was so intense they couldn’t rule out a tumour and if this was the case he would be transferred to Walton Neurology, but her instinct was it was BP driven. We are now over four weeks in. My life and our children’s has been shattered but he is here, he is alive. Over the past four weeks he has pulled out 6 NG tubes, and was put forward for a PEG procedure last week, which was successful. He has been receiving some
physio but is so weak.He has again this week contracted a chest and water infection (due to a blocked catheter) and the chest infection could be from the PEG. Everyday I get up, make a coffee and wait for the phone to ring, if it doesn’t I just countdown the hours to visiting. The medical team seem to have got on top of the BP and said his infection markers are coming down. But im absolutely terrified of him getting more infections, and not making it. When our son visits, my husband sometimes gives him a thumbs up, he did also cry when I played him some music, but this past week he has been so poorly. They have said they will put him forward for rehabilitation at Clatterbridge once he’s “medically fit”. He has lost so much weight and I just keep praying he’ll keep fighting. Please if anyone can offer any words of help or share your similar stories I’d be so grateful xx
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