Sunday 23 November 2014

No, I've not been fishing

More pressing things to deal with unfortunately.

Brother Pete, the youngest of us at 55, was visiting Southend hospital early last week, after being directed by his doctor to attend following a few days of continuous headaches and high blood pressure.

Fortunately brother Bill's wife, Denise was with him and noticed he was dribbling and he didn't know he was, so she called for the young female doctor. 
in the pink!

She asked a few questions, and very soon had him straight in for an emergency scan, they found a brain aneurysm.Effectively a brain bleed!
He was operated on within 24 hours after being taken to the specialist unit at Romford Queens.

The treatment was what is called

Endovascular coiling

Endovascular coiling is also usually carried out using general anaesthetic. The procedure involves inserting a thin tube called a catheter into an artery in your leg or groin. The tube is guided through the network of blood vessels into your head and finally into the aneurysm.
Tiny platinum coils are then passed through the tube into the aneurysm. Once the aneurysm is full of coils, blood cannot enter it. This means the aneurysm is sealed off from the main artery, which prevents it from growing or rupturing.
He apparently had 5 of these introduced via his groin and 'phoned me within an hour of coming to!!
Right place right time, the NHS at it's best!
He sounded ok but drowsy.
They have still got him under observation, after he was shown to be dragging a leg and his blood pressure needs to come down.
We've spoken a couple of times and I'm happy,as he gets lots of visitors, to save my visit for a week or so.Not a great deal I can do at present and I'm happy with the care he's getting.
My regular readers will recall, Pete's wife Dawn died a few months ago. I know he hasn't recovered from that, and has immersed  himself into work. 
He's not taken any bereavement therapy. So who knows what pressure he was putting on himself?
We're off to Boston (Mass) tomorrow for a few days,so on our return we'll try and persuade him to let us bring him up here for some rehab.... and quiet chats, maybe by the farmers pond.... if allowed!



No comments:

Post a Comment