Where it started

I know many of you are aware that Charlie had a Craniotomy done back on Nov 19. His symptoms started with hearing loss, and over time, we learned he had to have this procedure done or else over time his brain would "leak" out of his skull.

Things went well, or so we thought. He was able to go home on Saturday, the 22nd. Things were good, he was happy – eating and feeling good in his recliner. BUT – Sunday morning, he was a different person.  He started having a hard time with speaking, mixing up words, and he wasn’t hungry (when is he not hungry???). So I called the surgery team, and she told me to go to the emergency room if I was concerned.  Which seemed very off-putting, but it is hard to know at the time what exactly to do.  So I decided to wait it out. By Sunday night, I had decided we were going to head to the emergency room in the Morning.

But – when the morning came, he was even worse, and then he had what I thought was a seizure. He fell down several times, and I knew I had to call 911 and get him some help.

The ambulance came and got him to the hospital, where he had had the surgery in the first place. They figured out he had a brain bleed and they had to go back in and fix that, and in the process save his life. But they waited until 11 PM, and by 4 AM he was out of surgery and in recovery. This surgery they said was a success.

But when I got there in the morning, he could not speak – he tried to talk but it came out as a mumble.