The Prognosis

After "skull surgery", we were just waiting for him to wake up. I wasn't too concerned that night because he was on HEAVY medication. He went into surgery around 8 pm and was out just before 10 PM. I figured I would let him sleep through the night, but when he woke up the next day I would be able to show him the helmet he would have to wear for a few weeks and how I was going to put Washington Commanders stickers all over it (he's a Cowboys fan - giggle!) But the next day, he didn't wake up. Three days passed, nothing. A doctor comes to see me and says, "Well, I'm sure you can tell this isn't looking good. We usually like the patient to wake up the day after because recovery is diminished significantly after day three and we're well past that." SIR!!! WE ARE IN DAY FOUR (silent scream). He talked more, but I really couldn't hear anything besides that he was recommending "palliative care".

Here we go with Google again:

Palliative care is specialized medical care focused on improving the quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses, addressing both physical and emotional symptoms and stress. It's not limited to end-of-life care and can be provided alongside curative or life-prolonging treatments. The goal is to relieve suffering, manage symptoms, and support patients and their families throughout the illness journey, at any stage from diagnosis onward. 

I was focused on the "life-prolonging treatments". He had been through something traumatic, so he just needed some time. At the week mark they told me that they don't like to keep patients on a respirator for longer than two weeks as it can cause complications like infections. We scheduled the first face to face meeting with the Palliative Care staff. His dad, my mom, his sister and myself got the devastating news. The facts were - even if he woke up, it's highly unlikely that he would ever walk or even talk again. He was never coming home because he would need to be cared for in a facility and if he didn't wake up within the next week, I needed to make the decision to insert a feeding tube and perform a tracheostomy OR take him off the ventilator and let nature take it's course (silent scream).

But we aren't there. He has a week! Miracles happen and just wait until I tell him everything that happened while he was in a coma. My husband was STRONG. I thought he was going to wake up.

By the end of the second week, I was defeated. He didn't wake up, he had developed a fever and had an infection.