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Saturday October 1st.

This is the quickest way I can maintain updates. Just come to this page. I have to
assist her sister who is house-bound with weakness and dementia.

Sunday October 2, 11 am

Friday October 7, 2am & 11am

Saturday October 8th, 9am & 4 pm *Fluctuating*

Sunday October 9th, 10am *Progress*

Monday October 10th 12pm *Thanksgiving, Indeed*

I visited Patient twice, morning breakfast time, late afternoon supper time.
Patient sat in a chair by the bed most of the day. She ate pureed food, didn't
like it at all, but was happy with the soup and my guarantee that it had nutrition.
I gave her my coffee from a flask, specially made for her, which she enjoyed greatly.
She gets stronger, her blood pressure reached levels I haven't seen for ten years,
109/43 was the lowest. She doesn't like all the IV needles and tape stuck to her.
I expect she is about 48 hours away from being transferred to the "inpatient" ward, away from
the security doors of ICU and sharing a room with others.
When that happens, she will probably be walked much, and my time may be more intense.
Her sense of reality has challenges. She knows the day and date, but she couldn't
manage her phone well. I am needed to supervise considerably.
I had to perform much maintenance chores for her sister, secretarial chores for
the pair of them, and start preparations for home safety equipment.
The skull drainage is ongoing, is not unusual, but the risk factor for a stroke
remains high. I met a lady whose husband is in the same ICU; she had
allowed him to go home too early, his aneurysm burst again in the same artery and
he had to start all over again. I must be vigilant. The patient is
like a child, careless, starts to wrap up her tube cords, making them pinch and shut
off the supply line, so I have to constantly get her to stop. Her attempt to use the
cell phone was a disaster, so I must continue to forbid her. I just hope it is temporary,
or I'll be a candidate for a straight jacket. I got two of them now, stereophonic
troublemakers.

Thursday October 13, 2022 Notes Preceding Visit

It is an ongoing trial. The antibiotic motor packs have cabling that interferes with
everything. I have asked our local seamstress to convert a nightie into one with a
convertible sleeve, with buttons, so the cable can be run easily to the outside and later
can be easily changed.

The antibiotics have destroyed the patient's hunger, which has destroyed her strength. The visit by the Physiotherapist
today may be a short one. The patient cannot recover strength without food, and all cabled up.
The nurse visits daily to repair the damaged cabling hookup. If it becomes a big problem, the patient will
have to return to Emergency for damage control.
I have cancelled her sister's needs. Her Community Care Manager will have to manage the sister's food and supplies.
The patient cannot be left alone as she constantly makes bad decisions, damages her cabling, and risks falling.
8 more days to go before the antibiotic program is concluded, and hopefully the patient will be able to eat and recover.

Saturday November 12

11:00 am

By trial-and-error, the ability to manage an unmanageable situation is showing promise.
The patient has a nightie that makes the IV apparatus less cumbersome and therefore less dangerous.
The visit by the physiotherapist yesterday was useful. She had many good suggestions. The patient
will be exercised to increase her strength. But we are still fighting a lack of hunger that destroys her energy.
7 more days to go before the IV antibiotic program ends. I then have to book an appointment at
the hospital to have the picc line removed. That's the hookup lines that have been attached to the patient
by a needle in an artery.

I don't know when or if her energy will return and how or if I will be able to get her to a hospital to have the procedure
performed. The nurse who installs the new antibiotic bags every day, does not provide that service.
Somewhere down the line, it may be necessary to rent a stair lift and engage overseas relatives to come here
or engage contract workers to serve the patient. But as that involves activating the power of attorney
and having to deal with lawyers, it is not a pleasant prospect. If you have ever dealt with banks and their lawyers
as I have, you will soon learn how much they hate to yield any money even, and especially, if it is not their money
but the money of the patient. I would prefer to deal with braying jackasses and things that crawl about the sewers
than to have to deal with bankers and their lawyers.

Monday November 14

2:00 pm

At the start (Sep 30) the patient weighed 128 lbs. Today she weighs 100 lbs. She has lost
21.875% of her body weight in 45 days. She is starting to look like a concentration camp survivor.
She is so weak, she can hardly stand up. There are five more days to go of the double set of antibiotic medications
that now run through her constantly. I have assured her that when the treatment ends, she will gain weight
again and return to normal. That's actually just a guess. Six days after the treatment ends, she will be
visiting the Infectious Disease Clinic of a downtown hospital for a follow-up. I finally discovered the full
name of the infection: Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteremia. It is resistent to many stronger treatments.
A study of the disease from January 1992 until December 1995, had a 59% survival rate. All had longer hospitalization.
It is known as a nosocomial pathogen. This means that the patient does not have it on admission to the hospital,
but acquires it within 48 hours of being admitted.

From the study: "Often, nosocomial infections are caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens acquired
via invasive procedures, excessive or improper antibiotic use." This suggests it was acquired
on the night of September 30, when the surgeons drilled through the skull to insert a syphon into the brain fluid
to release pressure caused by the addition of the hemorrhaging blood from the burst artery. It also explains
the importance of why the hospital would not operate until the spouse or POA of the patient had signed the
Permission To Operate papers releasing the hospital from liability.

If all this had occured in the United States, the costs would have approached or exceeded $100,000. Because it happened
in Ontario, cost to the patient is zero. The patient's benefit package paid none of the hospital bed bills,
but her coverage under the husband's company benefits extend into retirement, covered all of the hospital costs.

What remains important, but unknown, is what will happen when the antibiotic treatment ends on November 19th.
The Infectious Disease Clinic must show no more bacteria. There must be no more antibiotic treatment
in which case the patient should recover her hunger, re-gain weight, be able to manage normal physical activites, including stairs.

There is the additional problem of seeing what happens to the patient's mental abilities. She currently has little
sense of time or space. When getting up to go somewhere, she behaves like an IRoomba vacuuming robot by
entering unknown doorways and proceeding to bump up against closets, and being unable to identify furniture and
facilities in the room. She doesn't know what an elevator is, or how it relates to levels that it goes to.

The patient never truly knows what the date is. She memorizes what she has been told. Then when asked, she takes
up to fifteen seconds to repeat what she has been told. But she has no true idea of the time of day,
or the season of the year. She constantly asks about having "breakfast" or "dinner" after the meal has
already taken place. If she is promised that something will occur within an hour an a half, she will think
that five or ten minutes is long enough to wait. A set of questions to truly evaluate her lack of ability to understand
where she is, or how to travel somewhere, or what time is it, have yet to be given to her to determine the precise
misunderstanding of reality, because the physical impact on her body and survival are more important at this time.

The full impact of the hemorrhage has yet to be evaluated. The majority of this work will be done by the spouse.

Friday November 18

The last Ampicillin and Keftriaxone antibiotic bags were installed by the visiting nurse
at 9:30 am. Tomorrow morning, they will be removed, and directions given for returning
the pumps and managing the patient records.

The patient is down to 97 pounds and is losing weight at almost one pound per day.

When the antibiotic exits her system, she must regain her hunger and start nourishing and
refueling again. If this does not happen very quickly, and if she continues to lose
weight, strength, and energy, then she may have to return to a hospital. She continues to
be at great risk for a fall. Unlike the hospital environment, the patient must get out of
bed to go to the bathroom. She does not go anywhere else and otherwise remains in bed.

There is no time or facility to manage "visitors". Contacts continue to leave phone and
text messages. It's okay to do that, and the messages are played for the patient, but
she is too weak to engage in any communication.

As a brief summary of what happened. It all started on September 30th when the aneurysm
burst and blood contacted and interfered with the brain. The event was made more critical
when the operation on the evening of September 30th caused someone to expose the patient
to Enterococcus Faecalis Bacteremia (infection occured between hospital admission and 48 hours, suggesting
that medical error caused the exposure to the infection, mostly likely when a hole was drilled
in the skull to release pressure from the fluid building up in the skull). The bacteria is extreme
and deadly, often fatal to patients. The decision was made to treat the patient with heavy duty antiobiotics.
These antibiotics then became a threat themselves ("the cure can be worse that the disease.")
They are so stressful to the patient's system, that using them is as dangerous to the long-term
health of the patient, as any attacking organism.

Fortunately, by being at home, the patient can be watched individually and intensively around the clock.
But in this environment, the risk of falls now becomes another threat to the patient.

Sunday November 20

Yesterday, the antibiotics were stopped. The pump tubes were detached. The patient slept a great deal.
The patient was weak. Both times the patient was resting comfortably, and I had to go out to get
supplies, the patient decided to get up by herself. Each time she fell. Both falls were minor, no injuries
but she was very scared by her weakness. Each time I found her on the bed, where she had been able to return to.
I have started to give the patient more feedings than normal. I simply bring her food and she now assumes
it is time for a meal, and she will eat one or two mouthfuls. Otherwise, she doesn't care about food. And she has
no idea what time of day it is.

I expect this to clear and the patient to grow stronger. Today, I weighed the patient. She was still 97 pounds.
I then encouraged her to walk around the floor using the rollator. She happily went up and down the hallway
and into various rooms, and repeated the exercise four times.
I gave her a reward, a spoonful of yogurt, a small coffee, and she assumed it was a meal.

Two hours later, the patient got out of bed by herself, and walked back and forth up the hallway without assistance,
then returned to bed by herself.
If this continues, I'm going to have her try the stairs.

Tuesday November 22

The attachments for the infusion pumps that sent two separate antibiotics through the patient's arteries
needed to come out. The visiting Paramed nurse said she could not do it, and I would have to book at the hospital.
The hospital said, you don't book for it, you either go to your family doctor or visit the hospital Emergency.
Even though the patient was weak, we went to the family/clinic doctor early. They said they don't remove
picc lines. We had some other business to attend to at the same location, then headed for the hospital Emergency.
You wait in line. You get called to check-in, then triage, then registration, then a nurse comes
and gets you. It turns out the picc line is not a needle held in place with butterfly tabs.
It is a 3 foot narrow plastic tube that goes in far enough to reach the heart.
The nurse makes sure it is not damaged. Then you wait half an hour. Then you go home.

The picc line is gone for good. The patient can now walk and wash without tubes and bags
going wherever she goes.

The patient lost another pound to 96 pounds. Twice today, she announced that she was HUNGRY.
She didn't eat much each time. But she wanted more meals. It means the antibiotic is releasing control over her.

Friday November 25

I took patient on outing by mobility scooter yesterday. She couldn't learn. She could only go forward,
while I walked beside controlling direction and speed, but she wouldn't release the drive bar
to stop when I told her to. Fortunately we didn't hit anyone, though we did panic them, and nicked doors
and ran over a few curbs into red lights. The patient completed accounting tasks and had her
Covid-19 booster shot. Ten minutes after having the shot, she couldn't remember having it.

Today the patient must go to Infectious Disease appointment to confirm what I already suspect. The
enterococcus bacteria that she contracted from the September 30 operation is gone. Her low temperature
reading suggests that. But they have to play doctor at the hospital and grow a few vegetable cultures
from her blood to prove it to themselves.

I must get her back home very fast. She weighs 96 pounds and is weak and shaky. I am eager to ask
the doctor if this is normal after a long antibiotic treatment, and what is our best option to recover weight.
I plan on trying a liquid diet of energy supplements, smoothies, soup, since she doesn't like solids.


The patient was too weak to go to the Infectious Disease Appointment. Spoke with doctor who realized she had
been through a lot in the last two months. I gave him her recent temperatures. He agrees that the infection
is gone and there is no more need to visit the hospital. He agreed I should concentrate on restoring her energy.
The physiotherapist called to touch base. I set up an appointment with her next week. I hope I can
get the patient on her way to recovery, before the physiotherapist visits.

I bought a vegetarian Energy supplement to add to milk, as well as a carton of Boost. The patient had her first
of many. Though I warned her, she must also consume solid foods. Then she promptly fell asleep. The doctor
had suggested her body is in recovering state, and it will take time.










Tuesday November 29

5pm

Progress is minimal. Disappointing. A few days ago patient appears to have gained 2 pounds up to 98 pounds.
No change today. She continues to have extra "meals" of milk and protein energy drink.
She has fallen a few times. Last time was on a mattress, but couldn't get up. Had to lie there for half an hour
until I returned from set of chores. Today she ate all of her breakfast, rejecting nothing. It wasn't big
but surprisingly ate all the portions given to her and said she was forcing herself.

Patient continues to get very confused. When she stumbled into a bedroom and pulled a TV away from a wall,
almost knocking it over, I asked what she was looking for. She said, "My toothbrush."
I need more time to teach her how to find things. We could make a game out of it, except she is so weak she
can't play little children games, and remains in bed most of the time, so is more of an invalid.
I just hope one morning, everything turns around, otherwise I blame the antibiotic for being even more destructive
than the burst aneurysm.


Don't make any plans for her or for us. We won't be going anywhere soon. And when the snow comes heavily
it will make it that much harder and slower to do shopping trips, leaving her alone more frequently and more often.

Thursday December 1

Patient gained 2 pounds, is back up to 100 pounds. That could still be just food volume added to the body
but without true weight gain. If the protein drink continues to increase 'weight', muscle may be increasing.
Patient continues to not be hungry, and not want to finish what's put before her. She remains
perilously weak, shaky, unstable, unbalanced, prone to falls.

The physiotherapist visited with simple daily procedures to increase strength. Together, we devised a system to
safely practise stair climbing on a simulated step.

Sunday December 4

Patient's weight remains stuck at 100 pounds. I have added peanuts and potato chips to diet
No luck. If she is not hungry, she will not eat more. If she does not gain weight and energy soon,
it could be difficult to get her to appointments for MRI and medical follow-ups if the weather turns bad.

The flashes of hunger spells she had a few weeks ago, have not happened again. I continue to hunt for answers.

Wednesday December 7

The patient has started Extra Strong Probiotics. Since the heavy duty antibiotics destroyed her
stomach bacteria (assumption), the most expensive Probiotics with 14 strains, and 30 bilion
cells of bacteria are assumed to be required to restore normal digestive processes and normal hunger.
It is not an overnight solution. There is no other way to do this.

The patient was inspired to get dressed, go outside for the first time when not being transferred somewhere,
and simply go for a casual walk, using the rollator, from front door of her building to the local shopping
food court then back home again, the round trip taking ten minutes. All of this despite the fact
she remains at 100 pounds and is extremely weak. This is the intended program that will be followed
every day after one of the meals and doing exercises with some weight devices.

The patient must be ready for a December 28th MRI in which her brain will be evaluated for damage or whatever
the doctors are able to detect. Hopefully, there will be solutions as she cannot distinguish between
one location and another. She mistook a hallway laundry closet for a bathroom and a dish washer
for a toaster. She cannot identify objects, locations, and she has no sense of time. Five minutes
is exactly the same as one and half hours for her. She had to wait to proceed with a washing task after 90 minutes,
and kept getting up each five minute period, thinking the timer had counted down. This is why I am not
going out of my way to entertain people with the same old question. How is she? Answer. Terrible.

I also have to determine if I have to recommend that her MRI be done after sedation. I will have her
practising keeping still for 30 second periods to simulate the rotation of the MRI drum around her head
as she is restless and impulsive. If she cannot remain still, I see no option but to suggest she be sedated.
The hospital would have to prepare ahead of time for this, possibly using general anasthetic.

Saturday December 10

Patient is getting excellent BP readings. I continue to give her daily strong probiotics.
She refuses to eat much. I just ignore her and give her extra meals. She can't remember
what meal it is anyway, so she will always eat a little bit of something I put in front of her.
She was very weak Thursday, but as we were expecting the physiotherapist to visit, we needed to put on a show.
Got her dressed. We went out and walked the same route as Tuesday. 10 minutes outside. Better than nothing.
She didn't want to walk Friday. And today nothing. However, I
have been giving her a small dish of ice cream each evening. She never objects. Tonight, I got her pizza.
I just need to to give her different tastes, not the same old soup and nuts.

Yesterday the bad news was that our "family doctor", actually a clinic doctor, was gone. The once busy clinic is no more.
I'll have to start all over on Monday, trying to find a replacement for both of us. I need
my own prescriptions refilled soon.

Today, something potentially good happened. Even though she has been weak and stumbling about the last few days,
I decided to weigh her anyway, to see if the pizza, ice cream, and protein drinks are doing anything.
She was 103 pounds, up 3 pounds. It's too small a change to come to any conclusions, as that
could leave as quickly as it came. If only she can reach 110 pounds, she may have more noticeable strength
and be able to perform daily exercises and walks. I have to get her ready for the end-of-the-month MRI.

Monday December 12

Patient did not want to eat much all day, went for a walk outside, felt feeble and wanted
to be weighed. Has dropped to 97 pounds. I applied for new a family doctor to replace the clinic
that shut its doors December 1st. All our records are there.

The important features are to have a new doctor as close as possible, and one who visits seniors in their home.
The patient's sister has a doctor who visits. I don't need the features but the patient does.

Saturday December 17

The patient walked her farthest distance today. But she tires quickly. She still does not want to eat.

Monday December 19

Yesterday I started an new experiment to get patient to eat. An American female doctor whose husband
had Alzheimer's discovered that her husband's brain was not getting nourished effectively.
Increasing food volume didn't work because the "brain barrier" which protects the brain from tiny hostile substances
equally prevents nourishment from getting in. She surmised that tiny energy food parcels could
bypass the brain barrier, and have a chance to reach the progressively starving section of the brain that is slowly
killing her husband. She discovered a food product that contained what she called "ketones" that were small
packages of food that might restore the area. She reported that the ketones, within a few weeks, caused changes in
her husband that caused him to be more active, less helpless, more able and willing to read and perform other tasks
that were formerly declining as his Alzheimer's progressed.

Four years ago I discussed the technique with my brother who was dying from Parkinson's, a similar progressive
diseases that caused dementian, palsy, and other progressive declining activities. He didn't like the idea
since it was not proven or promoted by mainstream medicine, but he agreed to start the program when his Parkinson's
pneumonia improved so that he would stop coughing and eating normally again, no longer with a feeding tube.
He did not live long enough for us to start the experiment, as the pneumonia destroyed his swallowing control
causing non-stop filling of the lungs with saliva that gave him the pneumonia, that never stopped until he died.

I had forgotten about the experiment until yesterday. I still have an old jar of the simple nourishment
containing ketones. I gave some to the patient to get her started on the program, even though she didn't have
any understanding of why I was giving it to her. The theory is that the ketone energy packages
will get through the brain barrier and start to nourish those parts of the brain that have been damaged by the blood
from the aneurysm that had the instantaneous affect of giving her a form of dementia from day one that damaged
memory and perceptions of time. At the time I didn't know her sense of hunger was also affected.

I did not expect immediate results, or for that matter any results, as it is only a theory. However,
one hour ago, exactly 6 hours after taking her first small measure of spread on toast which allegedly contains ketones,
the patient woke up at 2am in the morning, claiming to be "very hungry". She has done that before, only to
fail to eat most of what was put before her. I made her what she requested, toast with
the spread that contained the ketones, along with her favorite Nutella. She also wanted an egg cooked in the microwave.
I gave the toast, egg, and a large coffee, then I left her alone upstairs for ten minutes to see what she might accomplish
with me nagging her to eat more. In the past she would eat 1/3rd of the toast, half of the egg and be nursing
the coffee for ages.

When I got back, it was all gone. She had devoured the food and finished the large coffee.
It doesn't matter that it is 2:00 am in the morning. And we are supposed to be sleeping and I am supposed to
be up early for a morning appointment. The effect could be accidental, or a result of all the probiotics
she has been getting daily, finally kicking in and doing their work of restoring normal digestion.
It remains to be seen if this repeats itself and generates more eating, weight gain, and restoring of the mind.
There is no apparent mental change at this time, but then there is no way to test it effectively.
Nothing can be concluded for now.

I can't find my copy of the doctor's book and research video that I had studied four years ago. I will have to look later.

Sunday December 25

Nothing good to report. The ketones are not working (yet?). She seems to eat less.
She is rarely hungry. I have run out of ideas, except one. The last chance is
December 28th, with an MRI at the start and a visit to the Neuroscopy doctor to follow immediately.
She has gone below her 95-100 pound weight range, to 93. She likes walking, but is no stronger.
We can go outside and stay warm, but the distance remains the same.

Thank you for all the Christmas greetings.

Wednesday December 28 **MRI & Neurovascular Appointment**

MRI went normally. The appointment in the Neurovascular Clinic followed immediately
with very little waiting. The nurse managed everything, so we never met the doctor.
MRI results were surprisingly within less than 1 hour of the MRI. Unlike the CT scan
where some technician or genius has to read the results which can take hours later, it's no longer a big event.

The MRI was declared unremarkable. There is still a danger of encephalitis and fluid build-up
but but no sign of any problems. The patient and myself are to watch for sudden unusual
abrupt changes to (1) memory (2) walking (3) incontinence or if there is any abrupt headache, go to Emergency.
I informed the nurse of the eating problem. She declared that there should be no aneurysm cause for this
which leads me to believe it is all a result of the severe bacteria acquired at the hospital and followed by
six weeks of antibiotic flushing of the body that is likely responsible for killing the hunger.
I had already researched other solutions and she agreed that I need to take patient to 'family doctor'
(or clinic equivalent) and to inquire about hunger stimulants. Older readers may remember the
good old 1960s when the now extinct "Hippies" used various illegal substances and it became a cliche
that extreme hunger would follow "smoking up". Some of the hunger stimulant chemicals are cannibas-related
but also applied to hashish and other substances. Since hunger stimulants exist, I hope I
can get a prescription for one kind or another without any cannabis derivatives, but something safe
that will do the job, as long as there are no side effects.

I will continue using extra virgin coconut oil, in case the alleged 'ketones', or energy packets can nourish the
affected or damaged sections of the brain and speed up brain recovery. The nurse
talked about a recovery period measured in a year or more, and that we should expect a slow steady recovery.
if in fact there is going to be a recovery, though to what degree, full or partial is unknown.

One final point I had to discuss with the nurse was an unusual structure on the surface of the patient's head
where the operation had taken place. I asked if it was scar tissue. She surprised us when she reported that the
sutures had not been removed. That was to be done early November at the hospital, as is was part of the schedule.
I even reminded the hospital nurse that it was to be done there. They forgot and never did it, so I was feeling
not a scar tissue, but the bristles of the sutures. The nurse said she could remove them immediately
and she did. She also agreed to be available for when I submit paperwork to her department
when Short Term Disability Claim will be required to renew on the 3-month since the aneurysm
and a doctor's evaluation is required on the claim. All-in-all, it was a beneficial visit.

Monday January 02 **New Motto**

After accidentally meeting a neighbour who many years ago had an autistic 7 year-old son who was greatly underweight,
I have learned a new motto, which came from the neighbour's doctor two decades ago. "The Calories are everything."
I purchased a variety of foods like butter tarts, to add to her diet with each meal.

Today there were some successes.

(1) She went for two walks, one after breakfast, the second in the dark of evening, instead of one only during the day.
(2)She didn't use the rollator (walker with wheels). The first time I dragged it behind me. The second time, I left it behind.
In case of emergency, if she couldn't walk, I had a simple plan to sit her down and wait while I fetched the rollator
or a scooter to take her home safely. She never needed the emergency plan.
(3)Her vitals (blood pressure and temperature) were the best ever since she had been home. Her weight equalled her best
at 100 pounds. It took about 4 days to recover from 95 pounds. I gave her calorie foods as desserts after each meal.
She readily ate them up. I will wait for one week before I weigh her again. She must achieve at least 105 pounds
to prove that something different is happening. If she keeps eating the calorie desserts, it will happen.
She still has a full set of her regular 'healthy' food and daily vitamin supplements. This includes zinc,
which is considered a supplement that can increase hunger. It has proven once before to be slow to start
but effective at the task as it accumulates.
(4) The patient felt motivated throughout the day to do special exercises. They did not tire her out but
made her want all the more to go outside and walk. This included weights, exercycle, bending and stepping.
(5) The patient is still receiving 'ketones' from organic extra virgin coconut oil, in case they influence brain recovery.
Today she was able to remember where she is to go to get home, and managed to use a fob and her key to open the doors.
(6) In the evening, the patient fell asleep by herself, without melatonin (a natural non-addictive brain chemical)
or any other chemical support. The day's activities had simply proven to be enough activity to tire her out,
without exhausting her or causing her to "burn out". In previous days, she had "burned out" during each walk
and was barely able to make it back home without assistance.

I expect better progress throughout January. If not, we will go to a doctor to see about hunger stimulant prescriptions.

Monday January 09

The patient seems to be eating more, having snacks between meals. Her weight was up to 102 pounds.
It's too early to tell if this is a trend. 6 months at 1 pound increase per week would bring her back
to normal. She walks regularly, but is still extremely weak and cannot last more than 15 minutes.

Monday January 16

The patient is back to 100 pounds. She is very weak, fatigued. There is no significant progress to report.
As all minor techniques have failed to produce results, and as the patient becomes more and more
disappointed by the lack of progress, I am going to have to find some solution to make everything better.
The patient faces years of the same, just waiting for something to suddenly enact a cure.

I have one idea left to help that cure to become a reality. On Wednesday, of this week
I plan on taking the patient to a specific doctor who may know the solution.

Thursday January 19

The doctor wasn't as resourceful as I thought. He has no original solution. He wants the patient to see a gerontologist
as if her condition is a function simply of old age.

It isn't the first time I have run into medical practitioners who have run out of ideas, and been forced to find
an alternate solution. When something is broken, you try to fix it. Unfortunately, this is what a lot of seniors now face.
Time to get another opinion. This attitude occurs because the human body will often fix itself by itself
without any accredited human helping. That's why witch doctors can appear so successful.

Friday January 27

The patient remains the same. No strength, poor balance. No magic solutions.
The snowy, chilly, icy weather interferes with walking sessions.

Saturday February 11

No changes. Still hunting for magic solutions. Trying to find a new family doctor.
The patient's blood pressure is good. Walks are brief, because the patient doesn't
last long before she starts to stumble, as if someone is pushing her from behind. Her
steps are too short, which causes the effect. She is trying to practise walking in spot
while holding a support. The medical attitude is that patient is 'old', therefore she
should see a gerontologist. We rejected that. She is damaged and needs to be fixed. She
doesn't need entertainment and to be categorized as old. If she doesn't metabolize food and is
rarely hungry, that's a problem that needs to be corrected, but the available medical
establishment doesn't have ideas.

For the record, this is fifth or sixth time the medical establishmement failed us, giving
wrong or inadequate solutions, forcing me to find solutions for significant problems.
Previous doctor's pronouncements included (1)"it's all in your head", eventual solution:
physiotherapy for tendinitis, (2) inability to walk, doctor gave up, eventual solution:
patient-devised exercise that freed the muscles from 'adhesions' (3) "your toenails need
to be removed," solution: nails allowed to grow and cotton to direct nails outward,
(4)"you will have trigeminal neuralgia forever", solution, operation by skilled doctor,
which solved the condition twenty years ago.

Summary: There are good doctors and there are the physicians in it for the money,
but who lack fundamental problem-solving skills.

There's still a chance we will encounter an effective doctor, but right now opportunities
are shutting the doors in our faces, so we continue to seek the solution ourselves.

I expect updates will be monthly from now on.

Sunday February 12

It was a long wait, but we saw the real doctor today. Without me prompting him, he concluded
by himself that a medication related to Seratonin would help with the management of the
symptoms and could lead much faster to her recovery. So now she will start a medication
with a proven track record of aiding with metabolism, weight gain, and mental stabilization
even though the healing of the brain is still involved, and still a long-term procedure.
Hopefully, the more significant symptoms relating to balance, mood, and energy will be
on the road to being resolved in a reasonable amount of time. The doctor will monitor
the results and adjust treatment accordingly.

Wednesday February 22

The patient is not getting better. It's hard to say what is needed. According to the
general history of the subarachnoid hemorrhage (burst aneurysm and bleeding in the brain),
it can happen at any age, often at a much younger age (recently actor Tom Sizemore, age
61, this past Saturday, leaving him in critical condition). The general history shows
recovery in 3-6 weeks. That must be the ideal earliest expectation. With bleeding in the
brain that may be slow to stop, you can add months. With age, you can add more months.
In the case of the patient who contracted a severe life-threatening infection in the ICU,
you add more months. Is that why it is taking so long? I don't know. I don't wish to give up
the patient to a rehab hospital, as she would have to remain there, and she doesn't do well away from home.
It is especially a problem, because of her impulsiveness and misconceptions of reality.
A few days ago, after I returned from a chore, she complained that 'the man' had awakened
her while I was out. I said "What man?" She pointed to the TV, a detective called Hudson
in the series "Hudson and Rex", that she watches constantly, (even the repeats, as she
remembers nothing of what happened this first time the episode played.) "And how did he
wake you up?" "He passed by the bed and grabbed my foot." I laughed. That's what I do
when I pass by to reassure her I'm on the case. But never when she's sleeping. I'll have
to speak sternly to the detective and tell him not to do that again. Also, she is under the
impression that the cast members of "The Big Bang Theory" are running into me all the time in the elevator.
I don't want her in some hospital because of the delusions and because I can bring her back to reality
much faster than innocent doctors and nurses who, when they first encounter it, actually believe
what she is saying and waste their time trying to make sense of it.

I know the doctor who prescribed the medication which balances the brain chemistry
warned me that it can take a few weeks for anything to happen. It's because a patient
who is prescribed the seratonin balancer is always given the lowest amount to start with.
As time goes by, as the requirements demonstrate, the medication dosage can be increased.
She's only been on it for 10 days. There's still hope. But because her balance is terrible,
she has had 3 falls since then, none of them serious, one that she recovered from herself
when I wasn't home. Another that left her on the floor for half an hour, calling to me when I was out.
So far, we have been lucky. Nothing broken or bruised. I keep adding devices to the areas of danger
to improve safety, but she refuses to use the rollator (walker with wheels) when going anywhere,
and prefers to go tottering about like a tight-rope walker. She needs to wear some kind of blow-up
Halloween costume, so when she falls, she just bounces back up again.

The best plan now is to have her eat "no matter what, whether she is hungry or not," which seems to be
the best chance of getting her energized, so she can balance, walk and function. Time will tell.













Saturday March 11

There is little to report that is good. She tried a special prescription that should have
allowed the brain to balance its functions, and regain hunger, metabolism and strength.
Instead, it gave her unpleasant side effects and had to be discontinued after two weeks
until I realized it was harmful. It made her weaker, she never walked, and gave her
digestive problems. Stopping the prescription has allowed her to improve slowly. I have
also replaced all her milk products with lactose-free which appears to benefit.

The herbal drops I was giving her proved to give her flashes of hunger, and I was only giving them
about twice weekly for safety. As they proved safe, I now give them to her twice daily,
increasing her hunger, and someimes causing her to want to eat more food at one sitting.
The result was a noticeable increase in walking strength the following day. But the effects
are so far not consistent every day. I continue to try new foods and techniques to increase her hunger.
The patient remains at 100 pounds, never lower, never higher. This is both a disappointment
and a relief, as it means she is not getting worse.

She will lose her short-term disability next month. She is being refused long-term disability.
That's because of her age. I approached the company Insurance agent and her Union with the point that
her manager never respected her age and so gave her excessive work to do which contravened her normal work skillset.
They ignored me. Her company has never sent her a get-well card or phoned to see how she is doing.
I am debating with myself with how to deal with the situation, as their change in her job
duties were by all appearances responsible for the brain aneurysm. That just adds to the
difficulty of the situation.

Right now I have to concentrate on her recovery and maintaining my own health. I don't
know how long this can continue.

We are waiting for something positive to break and for a sudden upturn in recovery. It is
simply not happening and that is why there is no point in frequent updates. I am eager for
her next MRI in April so that I can see what I can learn about other patients with a
history of brain aneurysms. As you may know, Tom Sizemore the actor, age 61, did not
survive. But there were other factors as he had like many celebrities abused his body
with drugs and alcohol. It remains a very dangerous situation. There are a lot of people
out there right now like ticking time bombs who will get the brain aneurysm and have their
lives transformed. It might even be you who are reading this, because we do not normally
get CT scans to look for growing aneurysms, the same way we test for colon cancer and
other dangerous conditions. It is not a standardized test. Perhaps it should be
since it is more common than you think.









Monday March 27

For the first time in 6 months the patient weighed heavier than before:
March 21 102 pounds up 2 from her constant norm of 100.
March 23 Patient weighs 104 pounds
March 25 Patient weighs 105 pounds
March 27 Patient weighs 107 pounds
I have decided not to tell her, that at this rate, she will be over 300 pounds by the end
of the year. Her sense of humor is good, but not that good.
She is still extremely weak, metabolism is not happening, so she cannot walk.
She speaks to friends on the phone occasionally, constantly deluding them into thinking
she is normal. She is not normal. She cannot function normally. Cannot walk for more
than ten minutes, then is exhausted. And she forgets everything immediately. She asks
twenty times a day, what we will have for dinner tonight. I do not know what the future
is going to bring. I am hoping for an MRI next month, but so far it hasn't been booked.

SAH - SUBARACHNOIDHEMORRHAGE - The Patient's Trauma