Chicago Crew Thread #2

[Sanjay]

Hey folks,

I should've posted earlier, but I haven't had a chance to really get on the net. So here's an update on me.....with Thanksgiving good news.

I had to leave on Saturday to come to India on an emergency. My dad was here for a couple weeks on business, and while he was packing his bags he had a major brain hemmorhage, and he had to be rushed into neuro-surgery to have the blood drained and the artery repaired. I don't remember all the details of where the hemmorhage was, but the doctors were able to get to him in time and they were able to save him. He has been in stable condition now, but still unconscous. So today they turned off the sedation medicine to try and gradually wake him up to assess the neurological damage, and they also were able to turn off his respirator. So the good news is that he is able to breathe on his own, and he has been very responsive. I got to try and talk to him to see if he would respond to me, and I asked him, "Dad if you know who this is, lift up one finger. He lifted his thumb up(i thot I'd get the middle finger lol), and then I asked him, "to sqeeze my hand if he knew that I was Sanjay", and he did. I asked him a slew of questions and he is definately responding by squeezing my hand for true and false questions. So that's definately good news. We are hoping he will be able to wake up in the next couple days, and then we'll be able to assess what recovery he has made so far, and what recovery is left.....it's definately gonna be a loooooong road ahead for recovery. Right now, I'm not sure how long I will be in India....hopefully I'll know more over the next few days.....and then I can figure out when I can come back home....but we don't know when we can bring him back home yet, it'll be at least a month.....if not longer until he can fly.

I'd appreciate it if you can all keep him in your prayers....he can use all the help he can get right now.

I'll try to update as much as I can, we have dsl at our house in india, but I'm at the hospital almost all the time....just coming home to sleep for the most part. Hopefully I'll be home soon, and I can bring him home soon too!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!! Oh, I did eat turkey today too!!! But, I had to have a turkey sandwich at Subway here in India! lol I couldn't really make a turkey here, but at least I got to have some! hehe Best wishes to all!

-Sanjay

:edit: Looking at this post again I just realized that it's hard to tell what the good news is, and it is that my dad is breathing on his own without the ventilator, and he is pretty responsive to voice commands so far.

[38 Cigarette]

Sorry to hear about this Sanjay. Your father and your family are in my prayers. Heres hoping for a full recovery my friend.

[440 4x4]

Sanjay,

Sorry to hear about this - although it's good that he seems to be responding. If there's anything that anyone can do...

-Jeff

[Turbodrvn]

Sanjay: sorry to hear this; our prayers are with you and your father

[Sanjay]

Hey Jamie, Jeff, Ahmed,

Thank you guys for the kind words. Looks like all of our prayers combined with great timing and great doctors have made a miracle happen. My dad is in stable condition, they've taken the breathing tube out today and his trachea didn't collapse, so that was another bridge that we crossed today. As long as his breathing stays normal, I think they will take him out of the ICU tomorrow and put him in a private room. The good thing is that it looks like he has retained most of his senses so far. He is still unconscous, but he does follow commands. The doctors are pretty surprised that he is able to move his tongue and open and close his mouth on command(He wasn't able to do that 4 days ago), so that's a damn good thing. Also today after the breathing tube came out, he started coughing on his own to get some of the secretion out.....that's also good because they said that if he didn't cough, they'd have to do a tracheactomy and make the hole in his neck so that they could suction out the normal secretion.....otherwise he'd be infection prone. So far all looks good, but like I said before, we won't know the full extent of the neurological damage until he wakes up. He is able to open his eyes about 1/8 of the way open, and his pupils are reacting to the light, which means the brain stem is in good shape! so that's another good sign. All in all, we are still waiting for him to open his eyes and talk.....we are pretty sure that he will have some sort of speech impedement, but his eyes should be fine. The right side partial paralyzation is starting to get feeling again also.

Hope everyone is doin well.....I hope to be back soon....but I'll be making frequent trips back here to India.

-Sanjay

[VR4 Playa]

great news Sanjay!!!

here's hoping he makes a full recovery and from the looks of things he's progressing great

keep us posted while we keep him in our prayers

[Damon]

SANJAY! Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear about your dad but SO glad to hear he's recovering so well. I just tried calling your cell and realized you're still in India... doh. Michele and I will be praying for your dad and the family. Stay positive and be sure to keep us posted. And call me when you're back in the states, it has been far too long... much love buddy.

[GTOGIRL3000]

I'm so happy to hear that Sanj! Looks like the prayers are working .

[DaveSlow]

Hope he continues to recover at this fast rate

[vr4ludak]

Good to hear hes doing good. Hope hes back on his feet in no time. If you need any thing lemi know!