Ninety-nine percent of all patients on the neurogical floor at Eden Medical Center leave dead or disabled. One percent leave alive and able.
Ryan is a one-percenter.
The cerebral angiogram showed he had suffered a brain bleed but not an aneurysm. Wonderful news. However, the doctor had earlier noted that sometimes such bleeds are a foreshock that precedes the big earthquake. I forgot to ask about that when he gave the good news following the angiogram. That question stuck in the back of my mind.
At Eden the medical team did a great job managing Ryan’s pain. That would change after he was transported at 1 a.m. to Stanford University Hospital–a teaching hospital housed in a delipated and filthy building that provided treatment by resident doctors. (I should mention that Stanford recently completed a new hospital but hadn’t yet moved into it). Because the physicians failed to aggressively treat Ryan’s pain he arrived with level three pain and left 15-hours later with level seven pain. After we arrived at his home the pain intensified. When it reached level ten and he begged for relief, I drove him back to Eden Medical Center where they hooked him up to an IV and did another MRI.
As he writhed in pain my concern was that the “big earthquake” had hit. As I stepped out of his room I bumped into his physician, Dr. Peter Adamczyk.
“I saw Ryan is here,” he said.
“This is his room,” I noted as I opened the door.
Once inside he viewed the recent MRI and said, “He’s improving. See here,” he said as he pointed to the monitor. “The pool is smaller.”
“And what about the possibility of the “big earthquake?”
“Not a chance,” he said. “His brain looks good. He’ll battle headaches for awhile but will fully recover.”
And he has–just about. Tomorrow night Ryan will fly to Portland and we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving a week early with his two children and a brother.
We thank God Ryan is alive and well.
We thank God his children, Elijah and Sitara, have a healthy father.
We thank God Ryan’s two brothers, David and Paul, have a healthy brother.
And we thank God for your prayers.
When we first heard Ryan could die, or worse, I sat with Cindy and shared from my heart: “Our faith has prepared us for this. We know God will sustain us. We don’t know if Ryan will live, die, or be disabled. But we do know, whatever the outcome, God is good.
“The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. May the name of the LORD be blessed!” (Job 1:21 NET).