It has been a never-ending week!.......

I have been absent this last week, and it has not been because I am partying...

My grandfather as you know had been ill lately, he had finally started to do well last week and was able to walk.
On Monday, we went to visit my uncle in Mexico because he had surgery, and on the way upstairs, my grandfather lost his balance and fell off of the 4th step onto a concrete floor.

We called the ambulance, and they took my grandfather to the hospital.  We found out that he broke his shoulder, hip, and pelvic bone?

In order to do surgery on my grandfather, my Family had to pay cash lump sum deposit, it was outrageous.  So after A LOT of paperwork, calls, and tears, we finally arranged for my grandfather to be transferred from an ambulance to the Border, and from the US border, an ambulance would take him to the hospital here in the United States. 

On Tuesday the transfer happened, and he was brought to Sharp Memorial in San Diego, Ca.  He got admitted through the emergency room and a few hours later he was upstairs in his room.  All kinds of tests were started while in the ER and continued to this date.  In Mexico they were only planning to do surgery on his hip and shoulder, but after all of the testing here, they found so many more things....
My Grandfather has 2 failing kidneys
failing prostate,
broken "shoulder"
broken pelvic bone
broken hip socket
He has Brain Hemorrhage on both sides of the Brain.
Liquid "blood" in his lung.

He fell on his left side, so all the injuries are on the left side. 
He had one surgery yesterday, it was a filter on his "main" vein to filter for blood clots, since they can not give him blood thinners because of the brain hemorrhage.  Right now, as I type, he is in surgery to repair all of his broken bones at once.  Surgery is scheduled to be 7 hours.

I have been here since he got admitted on Tuesday, and when I say I have been here, i do not mean like the typical hospital visit that you may think.  Let me explain...
He got admitted on Tuesday at 2pm since then I had not left his room even to go to the bathroom or to get food until the next day at 11pm.  On Thursday at 3am I was trembling and felt so light headed because I had been with zero food or sleep, so the nurse sat with my grandfather while i took a 3 hr nap.   I have been awake again since 6am Thursday until now, you must know how I feel, other than being exhausted and hungry, I am emotionally drained and mentally done.
Running on 3 hrs of sleep since Monday is breaking me down, I have not even seen any of my kids since Monday. 
Yes, my grandfather has 14 kids of his own, yet I have been the only one by his bedside since this all started, and NO; I wouldn't let it be any other way.  This man has been my father figure since my father passed away when I was 4 years old.

I miss my babies so much, I miss blogging, and even just sitting and not having to scream for nurses.  Life has not been life.  At the same time, I would not trade this for the world, I made a promise to my grandmother before she passed away, that I would take care of him for her, and my word I will keep.

The reason I mentioned the name and location is because I wanted to share how much I appreciate the entire staff here at Sharp.  Everyone has been so nice, and helpful and understanding.  The amount of compassion and friendly smiles has helped me through a lot of tough times.

Have I mentioned I miss my babies??  I had tickets to a sneak preview of Shrek 3, for tomorrow and I won't be able to make it.
Saddest part is that I just found out tomorrow morning is my Daughters Basketball championship game.  :( this is going to be the first game I ever miss :(

If you are a person of Faith, please pray for my grandfather, and my sanity as well ;)

Thank you so much for those of you who still are here for me ;)

UPDATE:::::
oh my goodness, so on my post above, about my week in the ICU, I forgot to mention that on top of all of this that we are going through with my grandfather, my moms car was broken into and all of her items were stolen.

Yes, that's horrible, and this morning, my biggest personal blow came and hit me as hard as anything............

I found out that last night, I won a bingo on an online sweepstakes from a local casino for a prize of $500  cool right!?!?!?
No, I apparently had until 11pm to claim it and with no access to a computer in the ICU during that time, I lost my win.

Ohh, I am just so broken down right now!!!
sorry, i just had to rant :(


UPDATE AGAIN::::::
I have been keeping you up with what's been happening with my grandfather this last week, so logically as soon as I got my details together, I had to share with you...

Last night the Doctor came and asked to speak with me, the Granddaughter.   He told me that after checking the
CAT scans for the entire week, he noticed that the brain hemorrhage has in fact continued at a noticeable rate.  Long story short; there are two options:
1. we choose surgery for him.  As with any surgery there are risks, with a surgery taking place in the "brain territory", there is in fact more dangers.  The benefits would be that the hemorraging could be stopped.

2. we don't choose surgery for him.  He would be able to go home as soon as his other issues are taken care of, and he is brought to the hospital once or twice a month to monitor the bleeding.  Bad thing is, that at any moment, the bleeding could turn into a dam and there would be no time to get to the hospital.

After explaining all of the pros and cons, he gave me the task of calling all of my 14 aunts and uncles and telling them everything.  On top of that, I had to have each one give me their opinion on the surgery.  That was such a hard thing to do.  I was the one that had to make the phone calls when my Grandmother went to the hospital and when she passed away.  I am begining to notice a pattern here :/

I got through speaking with each one, making sure I gave every piece of information and that I kept my own opinion to myself.  Having to tell them that this operation was a complete risk to his life, and that not operating was the same risk; it was just heart breaking.  Let me tell you something, my Father passed away when I was 5 years old.  He passed away from a brain hemorrage.  All I keep hearing from everyone that has come to visit my Grandfather is that MY Daddy passed away from this, and that they have to make sure their Father doesn't pass away from the same thing.  I do understand of course that we must do what's possible to get my Grandfather better, but to hear about my Father passing away is so hard!!!!! 

Ok well let me finish, so the surgery got accepted by all of his children and I met with the Doctor and gave him the news.  Monday we are supposed to have a final meeting to get all of the details in order for the surgery. 

UPDATE:
the lab results came back at noon, and my Grandfather's blood count is very low, in a matter of 2 hours, he was being prepared for a blood transfusion of 2 units.  Mind you that on Weds, he has 2 units as well.  sigh :/

UPDATE & ADDITION::::::
Did we really think that would be all?  That things had finally gotten easy for us?  That all was left was brain surgery and we would be on our merry way???
I am begining to think that those kinds of endings are only in fairy tales :/


The Doctor in charge asked me to go out to the hallway with him today, told me he had some "news" to give me.  "hit me Doc" is what i told him, I knew in my heart it was not good...


It seems that my grandfather has contracted a very bad bacteria.  Yes, as if there were any good ones,lol.
To tell you a little about it, it's called "acinetobacter baumannii"
it is a species of pathogenic bacteria that is resistant to most antibiotics.
As a result of it's resistance to antibiotics, some estimates state that it is killing tens of thousands of hospital patients in the United States.   There have been many reports of this bacteria among American Soldiers that were wounded in Iraq, earning it "Iraqibacter" 
This is a multi-drug resistant acinetobacter baumannii , for short: MDRAB. 


The entire room has been "cleaned" thoroughly, and we all have to wear gloves and disposable scrubs.  We have to take them off before we leave the room, and put on a new set every time before we enter.   They are not sure how he got it, but the lab is working on finding an antibiotic that works.  In the meantime, kids are not allowed to come visit, so now I have no idea when I will see my babies again.

**I have gotten so many bad news today, especially with the bacteria, that my spirits are very low.  My hopes were high with the brain surgery, and now it's been postponed until this issue is taken care of.  Hearing my Grandfather tell me all day that he just wants to quit, and give up, has just finally broke me down.  I am just so sad, broken.

UPDATE 5/19:::
Well we didn't get to break out of this place yesterday after all.  Discharge papers were in and doctors came to do last exam, and immediately revoked his "walking" papers, lol.  My Grandfather's body is extremely swollen, and Doctors suddenly feared a blood clot.  After a lot of ultrasounds and X-rays, we are still here.  No word on when we are leaving or what the next steps are going to be.  For now, it's just a new set of meds.