ER

I realize a lot of you aren't caught up with our story but I wanted to post about our trip to the ER Tuesday night. Dave is currently about 4 weeks post-op from his second brain surgery. He was only in the hospital 2 days and has been recovering remarkably well. He had very little swelling, little to no pain, and has been wanting to go back to work since he's been home.
We were sent home from the hospital with a schedule to wean him off of his steroids within a week or so. The steroids help keep the brain swelling down but they also wreak havoc on his body. Near the end of the schedule and just two days before our follow up appointment with the doctor, Dave just sort of checked out. He was awake and aware but completely apathetic to everything around him. Doc decided he was coming off the steroids too quickly and was suffering some brain swelling. The steroid dose was pumped up and then we began weaning again, but much more slowly.
He finally finished about a week ago. Monday he woke up with some swelling in his right eye. It was odd, so long after the surgery. He also had a headache, which he had not been dealing with at all. I waited and watched. Tuesday he woke up with his eye swollen shut and a bad head ache. I was concerned with brain swelling so I called down to Phoenix to see what the doc thought. I could only speak with the nurse and she said to see his primary care doc and if the swelling or pain got worse that we should head to the ER. The primary couldn't fit him in right away and said we should go to the ER so they could do a brain scan. He was feeling better so we waited. By the evening I decided we were going whether he agreed or not. He wanted to shower before we left and ended up passing out in the shower. He was out for just a second, and thank God, he did not hit his head. Just landed hard on his bum. We headed straight to the hospital. They got him in pretty quick, but of course they have none of his records or scans here. All of his care has been in Flagstaff and Phoenix. Doing my best not to be the rambler, I tried to put the last five months in a nutshell for the ER doc. He agreed and thought that the shower incident was probably not a seizure. Then they took some blood, did a scan and did an EKG. He said everything looked good, didn't think Dave would have to go back on the steroids. Which was my main concern. Then he spoke to the on call doc in Phx, who has never seen Dave, and he sent us home. OK. Little to no answers, four hours later, and a missed dinner. Dave's now exhausted and starving. Will call the doc in Phoenix and see what's next. Thanks for all your prayers.

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