Brain Surgery - G.L. Rockey

Visit Gary Rockey's BWL Author page for information and buy links to his books

The title of Gary's book seems particularly apt considering the subject of his blog this month, as his publisher I'm just glad to know that he'll be around to thrill, scare and tantalize us with lots more of his writing in the future.

 

Funny thing happened on the way to Halloween 2018. I noticed my left hand was not functioning normally. Couldn’t button shirts, pants, tie shoe laces. I told wife Concetta about it and she relayed the mater to my brother in law, Dr. Tim Sidor. He ordered a brain scan which we had done at University Hospital a few days later. After the scan, wife driving, she dropped me off at home. She had a few errands to do and I   settled on the living room sofa and watched TV. About an hour later, my wife came in the front door and said, “Let’s go.” I said where. She said, “Come on, now.”  I said, “What’s up, where we going?”, She said Emergency Room, Parma Hospital. I said “Why?” She said, “Now, Dr. Birdie, (one of Dr. Sidor’s partners) had directed the doctor’s office manger, Jennifer Miller to call my wife and tell her to get me to emergency room immediately. Feeling ok, not knowing what was going, wife driving, we arrived fifteen minutes later at the Parma Hospital emergency room around 4:30 PM. The emergency room pretty much empty, wife checked in and eventually I ended up in a hall on a bed. After a few minutes, I looked up and Dr. Sidor stood next to a nurse. Looking like Dr. Kildare in white coat. I asked him what he was doing here and he said calmly, “Working.” A few minutes later another emergency room doctor had me stand and walk, didn’t do so good. Back on the bed, the doctor said not to move. I asked Dr. Sidor what was going on and he said calmly, “Your brain is bleeding.” 

Evidently the scan had shown a large blood clot that was pressing my brain to one side. After the ER doctor and Dr. Sidor talked they decided I should be transported to St. John hospital. 

Waiting to be transported Dr. Sidor explained–a neurosurgeon would perform emergency surgery, cut a hole in my skull. 

The whole thing other-worldly (except for a tonsillectomy when I was around ten, I had never been a hospital patient for anything) the ride in an ambulance a new experience, twenty minutes later we arrived at S. John’s, where I was wheeled into a Critical Care room and hosted into a bed.  A short time later a Dr. Gabriel Smith, a neurosurgeon, came in and whet over the procedure he would perform the next day. He had me sign a paper Oking it since there was some risk involved with brain surgery. Asked if I wanted to be placed on ventilator in case of complications, to be keep breathing. I told him, “Let’s play that by ear.”

Surgery scheduled for next day at 12:30 PM., I was wheeled to the operating room where I remember a nurse asking me if I had any dentures, partials, hearing aide. I said, “No,” and it is the last thing I remember. I woke up around four hours later, opened my eyes and, back in Critical Care, the first thing I saw was my son Ray and my two sisters in laws, Toni, Jo Ann, and my wife, Concetta, who showed me a photo she had taken of my operated-on skull–an eight-inch incision. I stayed in Critical Care for a day where a drain that had been placed in my brain, was removed. Next day I was transferred to a regular hospital room. Stayed there for two days. After being cleared by a couple rehab professionals, I was check out and went home with Concetta. 

As of December 27, 2018, two months later and still among you all brings to mind fate, what if, and guardian angel thoughts. Selah.