Close Calls

Monday, my mother called me and said that my brother was in the emergency room in Arlington with an inflamed wisdom tooth. He was waiting for an oral surgeon to come and extract his tooth.

...waiting

...waiting

So, 3am rolls around, my brother has been in the ER since afternoon and still no surgeon. Realizing that my brother is 1. not going away and 2. getting worse, they transfer him to Harris-Methodist H-E-B. (that's in Bedford). Mom decides to go up there and wait with them.

He is assessed at 6am and 10 minutes later, they are wheeling him into emergency surgery. The infected tooth has now abscessed and is blocking his airway. This has gone from a painful to a very scary and dangerous situation.

45 minutes later the surgery is over and they removed a fist-size abscess from his throat and lymph area. They are VERY concerned about if the infection moved from the vulnerable lymph into his lungs, heart or brain. They were concerned about the amount of trauma inflicted on his trachea and vocal chords by the infection and subsequent surgery. He was placed on a ventilator to help him breathe until the swelling in his throat went down.

Mom calls me frantically while I'm touring the County Courts Building with Leadership Temple. I am completely stuck there, as we left our personal vehicles at the Chamber and rode a bus. I decided that was the best place for me to be because Munchkin was in school and the stress would really frighten her. So, I tried to encourage Mom as much as possible from where I was and I tried to distract myself with the activities of the day.

I will forever be haunted by the terrible thoughts that raced through my head that day. There was a very real possibility that my brother could die.

As soon as work was done, we threw some things in a bag and raced up there. The next morning, we went to the hospital to join Mom and J's wife (lissa) as they held what would become a four-day vigil in the ICU waiting room.

My brother looked positively horrible when I first saw him. I was shocked how little he looked like himself and I was amazingly terrified for him. He drifted in and out most of that day - he wasn't really there with us although he seemed to respond to us. By the evening, he was regaining a little consciousness and was a little more responsiveness.

I had intended to only stay until early evening on Wednesday and then come home. Once I got up there, though, I knew that I needed to stay. J's little glazed over eyes seemed to light up when I went back in that night and told him I was staying.

Thursday morning, J was responding much more and getting a little more demanding. That's how we knew he was on the way back. Friday's prognosis was very good - they took him off the ventilator and put him on clear fluids and said they'd move him out of ICU as soon as a bed opened up.

Munchkin was excellent throughout this process; tedious as it was for her. She made friends with other children also waiting with anxious families in the ICU and was usually the most popular child as we had lots of activities for her to do and movies to watch on one of several laptops (mine, mom's or lissa's). Kids gathered around the movie and watched as I sat nearby and read.

J is well on the road to recovery and may even be released tomorrow (Sunday). It will be a while before he's back to work and even longer before he'll be running any marathons with his classmates but he WILL go back.

You know, out of all the things he could have been anxious over, his very first concern upon waking up after his surgery was his standing as a cadet in the arlington police academy. It took a couple of days to reassure him but multiple visits by police officers, his instructors and classmates has reaffirmed his place as APD. It was really heart-warming to see how they rallied to his side. The police wives made several visits to the hospital with baskets of goodies and lots of support.

I observed several interesting things while we were rotating in and out of J's room during visiting hours.

1. I definitely found a new home for all of the magazines that build up around the house. In less than three days, I think I read every magazine. Yesterday (Friday), I ran home to pick up a few things and feed two very irate kitties and I grabbed as many magazines and books (kids and adult alike) to stock up the waiting room. As I get magazines built back up, I will take them to one of the area ICU waiting rooms.

2. If you want to see a visible presence of the Host, visit your local ICU. You will feel the brush of angel wings, I promise.

3. ICU waiting rooms were not designed with children in mind. While the waiting room at Harris was great because it split the chairs into little living-room arrangements, there were no puzzles or books for younger children. While we were there, we observed no less than four children there the entire time and a rotation of another three or four children coming in and out. I would like to see hospitals with playgrounds somewhere on the campus so kids who are waiting can have a place to run some of that energy out.

So, we're home. I cannot wait to sleep in my own bed and put Munchkin to bed at a decent hour. *yawn* That may happen sooner rather than later. I am so tired.

Tired and thankful.

Thankful it was a close call.
Thankful to see such a visible and reassuring presence of the Lord.
Thankful to be home because he's going to be just fine.