NOT a Normal Sunday

It was not a normal Sunday, after all. It was terrifying.

Everything was fine. Great breakfast. Lazy morning. We decided to go to the Pro Shop at the Ritz for breakfast (we were too early for lunch). Michael ordered a short stack, bacon and an iced tea. It was noon when we left, ran some errands and watched the F1 race. Around 2:00, we headed outside to do a few chores. I left Michael in the garage, cleaned all the cobwebs off the house and finished up in the backyard. Going back into the front yard, I heard, "Leslie, call 911!" It was our neighbor Joe who was over Michael in the driveway yelling at his wife. He was convulsing and bleeding.

He looked at me and yelled, "I think he had a stroke. Call 911!" I sat on the driveway as close to him as I could and directed the fire department and ambulance to the house. For about 10 minutes, Joe tried to keep him on his side, he was convulsing, unfocused, breathing but in an odd way with blood coming out of his mouth and on the back of his head. Lots of blood. I talked to him the entire time.

Paramedics arrived. Moved me aside. I mentioned that he has low blood sugar issues and they immediately checked. It read 67. Low. Apparently, it dropped even further in the ambulance. He began to focus better but was still unresponsive while the paramedics worked on him. Just before loading him up into the ambulance, I asked them to stop. I wanted to speak with him. I got down close to his face, looked him in the eyes and said, "You had a fall and they are taking you to Stanford. I will meet you there." He replied, "Why am I going to Stanford?" All the fire personal and ambulance drivers immediately relaxed. He had spoken for the first time. He was coherent.

Head injury was a concern which is why they took him to the trauma unit at Stanford. I gathered my meds, toothbrush, cell phones, Michael's wallet and Leslie drove me over the hill in horrible Sunday traffic to the hospital. It was right out of a TV show: high security, a swearing relative, a fight between strangers. When it was safe, I approached the desk to get in to see Michael. I smiled and said, "You don't get paid enough. You guys handled that amazingly well." They all smiled. Kindness paid off once again when I messed up and left the waiting room as a nurse asked to me wait outside. I thought out with the masses instead of just in the waiting room. When I tried to get back in while behind a line a people, they just waved me through.

Michael was total awake and was anxious to hear the entire story. He had felt like his sugar was low, went into the house for a piece of cheese and did not even remember going into the garage much less seeing Joe.

Joe told me that he was driving by, stopped to say hello, Michael came out of the garage in an odd manor and just collapsed, hitting his head so hard he could hear the thump. I arrived moments later.

Stanford thought it may be an underlying heart issue. He did this same sort of thing about 10 years ago. Everything was about the same. We think the sugar from the pancakes plus the maple syrup drove his sugars high then, two hours later, he crashed.

Since he has Kaiser, they were getting ready to move him. Nothing goes quickly in medicine so Leslie drove us home, I gathered other items, Ron and Susan made me eat some food with them then I headed back over the pass to Kaiser. They ran an EKG and did not believe it was heart related. They thought it may be something in his brain. We still believe it was low blood sugar driven.

They released him last night, we have an appointment with a neurologist this morning and the adventure continues. We have contacted no one. William is in Norway. There is nothing he can do and I know that he will dump the tour and fly home. Really, there is nothing he can do at this point. When we know the cause, we will contact him. I will phone mom within minutes to let her know that I will not be with her today.

I suddenly am the caretaker. I am worried but remaining calm for him. He was dizzy this morning, tried to have some coffee and just vomited. We waited a bit, he sipped some water and it stayed down so we just tried some yogurt. He said it tasted great and seemed to settled well.

I will update tomorrow. Here we go.