So, What happened?

Many of you may not have heard exactly what happened to land Ella in the hospital. Here is a timeline (best to my understanding) of the events that landed her in the hospital up to and just after her surgery.

July 29: Ella was in Egypt on the first stop of a tour with her church. At night, she went to use the washroom but could not find the light switch. While walking in the dark, she slipped on the floor and hit her head and face on the glass partition of the tub/shower. Her face was really bruised by this, but after a check up from another traveler, she did not seem to be having any problems. She continued the tour by traveling to Jordan and Israel with no problems. 

August 25: Ella was out with her "friend" and while getting into the passenger side of her car, hit her head again, but on the opposite side of her previous hit. Later that day she was having trouble walking and fell down twice. Apparently, this time when she hit her head it hurt a lot more than the previous one.

August 27: Ella went to her regular doctor to be checked. According to Ella, she was told that it was a minor concussion and to come back into the doctor or go to emergency if her symptoms worsened.

August 30: Ella's friend Grace attempted to bring her to the hospital. As Ella is stubborn and did not want to wait in the emergency room, she declined going. Her plan was to see her own doctor the following week. When she called me, Jennifer, I suggested that she call Alberta Health Link. I am not sure what was said during the conversation, but she informed me that she was good to wait until the following week to see her doctor.

August 31: It is my understanding that Ella was talking with her cousin Carol and explained what had happened and her symptoms, which at this point included not being able to walk properly. Carol wisely told her to go straight to the hospital. Ella called me, and I drove down to her place with my husband, Neil. After checking emergency room wait times we decided to take her to the Sheldon Chumir Center.  Upon arrival she was taken in within 20 minutes. When we were able to go back to see her, they had determined that she needed a CT scan of her head as well as an X-ray of her finger, which was also injured when she fell in Egypt. After having a neurologist exam the CT scan, it was determined that she had two subdural hematomas. Additionally, a bone was determined to be chipped in her finger, but this is of little importance at this point! She then needed to be transported to the Foothills Medical Center by Ambulance. Once at the Foothills, she was placed in a bed in Emergency. A resident doctor from neurology came down to assess her situation. It was determined that something needed to be done, but was not going to happen that evening. We left her at the hospital to rest that evening (around 1:30am!) and to come back the next day.

September 1: We arrived at the hospital again in the morning. Nothing had changed, except they knew she was not going to have surgery immediately as she was allowed to eat. Throughout the day, Ella's ability to walk on her own greatly declined. She had difficulty walking in a straight line and understanding where her body was. By the end of the day she needed a lot of assistance to walk on her own. She was transferred at some point from the more urgent care part of the emergency room to the less urgent area. We spoke to another resident doctor about the options going forward. At this point it was clear that nothing was going to happen until the following day.

September 2: In the morning we were finally able to talk with the surgeon about the options going forward. Ella opted for the surgery to drain the hematomas. Within an hour of this decision she was moved up to the day surgery department getting prepped for her surgery. Her surgery went well and they were able to put in two drains in. However, after the surgery while in recovery she had a major seizure followed by a minor one. The doctor informed me that this is not unusual with brain surgery, and not necessarily something to be overly concerned with. My understanding is that the surgery caused a small other bleeding on the brain which is common with invasive surgery like this. She was put on seizure medication in order to prevent and further seizures. She was then transferred to the neurology department ward for her recovery. She was very out if it in the evening, but did recognize me and Neil. We left in the late evening. We were informed the next day that during the night she had an additional two seizures that were minor. However this is something that they needed to keep an eye on.

September 3: Ella was groggy the next day as she was heavily medicated and just had brain surgery! The two drains were still in her head, as the hematomas needed further time to drain. She was confined to her bed as they did not want her to fall again and cause further problems. She was getting confused and mistaking visitors for other patients as some of her friends. I don't think we were able to convince her that they were not people she knew.

September 4 to September 20: I start to get a bit foggy on the details at this point and when exactly things occurred. But she had her drains removed with no problem. A lot of blood was drained from each hematoma. Neil does have a picture of the full bags, but I'm sure most people do not want to see it! She was in good spirits after the surgery and was making lots of jokes. So this was a good sign! She slowly began to walk again, at first with assistance, but now she is good on her feet! She has been to see a physiotherapist and they feel that she has no mobility problems from the surgery, which is great news! She is however having cognitive issues. This is something that an occupational therapist is working with her one. One of the "tests" she had was to go into the kitchen in the therapy ward to make eggs. This was to see how she would function on her own at home. As she will freely tell you, it did not go great. She can't get over that she burnt the eggs! But tests like this are helping them determine where she is going to need help. I find that her memory has been improving, but still has a ways to go. Also in this time she was moved to two different wards! Most of the last week has been waiting for a bed to open up in the rehabilitation ward.

September 21: Ella was moved into the rehabilitation ward. This ward is going to provide a structured environment that is solely focused on her rehabilitation. She will have classes to attend everyday during the week.

I am sure that I have missed a lot of details as to what has been going on. However, this is the information in a nutshell! Hopefully I covered the major points, but if you have any more questions, please let me know, and I will try my best to answer them!