Today I am thankful for Pandora, air conditioning, and caffeine. In other words, I'm now working full time in a very quiet office. In fact, I'm the only in here right now (don't worry, it's lunch time...I would never blog when I'm supposed to be working). The phone doesn't ring very often, and even when it does it's often my mom. The company she works for is partners in the company I'm working for right now. I work for her company too, though, so it all gets very confusing to explain. Anyhow, the work is not terribly stimulating, so I am very thankful that I have a little caffeine and Pandora to listen to as I work. Also, it's awfully hot outside and the a/c in the other room isn't working properly, so I'm glad to be sitting where I am.
In other news, I think my aunt is planning to stay with us indefinitely. Which is ok, really. Her plans keep changing, and I don't think she has anything figured out right now. She is going through a really hard time and she doesn't know the Lord, so please keep her in your prayers.
Now, for an update on Papa. He was supposed to be released from the hospital on Tuesday. In fact, they got as far as dressing him to go home. While he was dressing, though, he started speaking gibberish and having a hard time. He hadn't done anything like that in the hospital, so they were afraid that he had had a stroke or perhaps had a blood clot. They ran tests and such, but as it turns out, it was probably the physical exertion that caused it, again misfirings in the brain due to the hydrocephalus. So, long story short, he's still in the hospital. Today is his birthday, so my dad is headed down soon to see him and the family that's still there. The news we received this morning is that they did some sort of EEG on Papa and they could see the misfirings taking place in his brain. The good news is that there is some medication that can help with that. The next steps are unknown, though. We are trying to get him in to see a specialist at UCLA (Too bad it's not USC, but even we can get past this for Papa's sake). From there, there are two likely things that could happen. The first is that Papa will, indeed, be a candidate for a shunt to drain the fluid from his brain. The second, though is that the misfirings are happening because of degeneration in his brain. If that's the case, there isn't much that can be done beyond medication. However, if he does need the shunt, the surgery will be very difficult on him in such a weakened state. Please join us in continued prayer as we try to find a solution. We've still got a long road ahead of us, I'm sure, and this is all so hard on my grandma too.
Actually, one of the hardest things to watch about this whole thing is the fact that Papa is coherent most of the time and can function fine. In the case of him getting dressed to go home, after he started speaking gibberish, I can imagine they got him right back into the bed. When they could understand what he was saying again, he said, "Did I do something wrong?" It just breaks my heart. Even this morning he was unable to figure out how to walk so he could go to the bathroom. My uncle had to coach him through moving one leg and then the other. As much as we want to see him out of the hospital and at least back at my aunt's house, we are cautioning them against that move. If he is there and can't remember how to walk or something, someone strong is going to need to be there to help him. There are just some things my grandma and aunt won't be able to do for him. I wish I was closer so I could help...
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