Papa's Illness and Recovery

July 14, 2010

Papa had to go to the hospital a couple days after we arrived. It was a real scare. He was very confused, disoriented, and distressed. We took him to the hospital, with Patrick doing an amazing job of distracting him from his confused and panicked thoughts by showing him pictures and videos of his grandies on his camera. We went to the ER and they immediately sent us up for a neurological consult with Dr. Julia, as she is called in Malaysia; Dad would be called Dr. Ed here.

She broke to us that she thought it likely Dad had had a mild stroke. We quietly freaked out, waiting the results of his MRI. I sobbed with relief when his MRI showed that he had not had a stroke. Dad was still just as confused and now having trouble walking, though. She continued many tests until the eeg finally showed that he was having mild seizures affecting his frontal and temporal lobes that affect info-processing and emotions, explaining a lot. It was actually a relief to get such a result since it was treatable.

After many days of travel without sleep, he was checked into the hospital and immediately passed out asleep, completely exhausted. And, the anti-seizure medication took effect immediately with Dad's thinking more clear. It was wonderful to watch him recover. He was in the hospital for a few days til he completely stabilized.

The pictures above show how happy the kids were to see him, released from the hospital. Turns out, us adults weren't the only worried ones.