More medical stuff for Gavin

Hey everyone,

interesting that the first two sentences from the last post say it's been a hard few months but that I was getting better. Well, I was. Really was. Back at work and looking at starting in a new area at work with more hours. Then came Sunday night a couple of weeks ago. I thought I had a migraine headache, not that an uncommon occurrence for me. The next thing I remember was my meds not working and me vomiting- a lot. Not a common ocurence. Then it was Wednesday morning and I woke up in the ICU with four point restraints on. Over the next couple of days I learned what had gone on. Geneveieve had gotten my dad to take to to the hospital around 2 AM- by the morning I had begun to act violent and out of character. I needed to be restrained by security at times and eventually tied down to prevent me pulling out my IV's and other tubes. I then lasped into unconsciousness till Wednesday, basically. Although the tests haven't been straightforward, it appears that I developed non infectious menengitis, possibly as a very late effect of my surgery in March for the spinal tumour. They thought brain hemmorage for awhile too, but that isn't the prevaling thought now. I am doing much better now. They have discovered an abcess of sorts near the surgery site which may be a pocket of infection that casused this. I'm waiting to get it aspirated by a needle under radiology to see if it is infectious still. I am on eleven doses of three different intraveneous anibiotics (amplicillin, vancomycin and ceftryaxon)for another five or six days now. I have a PICC (Perifirally Inserted Central Line Cathater) line in to get these meds.

So once again, Genevieve has benn unspeakably strong and wonderful. She has been looking after the girls who have benn scared and missing their dad while at the same time looking after me. During my incapactitation she had to answer questions on organ donation and advanced directives for me- fortunately if never got that far but the possiblility of me becoming that ill was a very real fact. I'm still working out what happened- I sort of feel I lost several days during whcich I almost died- I went from knowing I was sick with a headache to completely losing control of my behaviour and the awareness of what was going on. I'm feeling much better now and hope to get home soon- we'll see what we do from there after I get this test done tomorrow hopefully. I simply cannot imagine doing anything in my life without my incredably strong and amazing wife. The way she handles adversity of all types is amazing. With the excecption of watching my wonderful daughter Ailsa grow this has been a dreadful year for us. Zoe has had a lot of medical issues and pain issues that we have struggled to get a handle on. I had first the spinal tumour and now this development out of nowhere. All this looking after other people have contributed to Genevieve's own medical situation to the point she has now had to take a stress leave from work to deal with the mental and physical pressures of simple living our day to day life. Nothing I can say would sum up how strong she is and and how much I need her in this life. She is the strongest mother and wife I can imagone. Our life has been so unbelievavbly hard this past year (or two)and I know I never would have got through it without her. All I can say is thanks my love. Let's hope 2013 will get a little easier for us- other wise it will kill us all for sure : )