As many of you know, my dad suffered a massive stroke Saturday evening. He and my sister, Mikala were en route from Maine to Leland and had stopped in Cleveland for the night. It was just after he climbed into bed that my sister noticed he was acting weird and the left side of his face was drooping. Mikala acted fast and called 911. At the first hospital, they administered a clot buster (TNK). He was then transferred via helicopter to Case Western University Hospital (UH) because there was a surgical procedure they were considering to break up the clot since the TNK was unsuccessful. My sister was with him as much as she was allowed to be throughout the night until he was resting. My mom drove through the night and arrived at the hospital at 6:30 am Sunday. I flew in on Sunday morning. Theo and Amy drove down from Leland and David Jensen flew in, and all arrived Sunday night. By the time Dad arrived at UH it was too dangerous to do the procedure they had been considering. What is worse though, is too much time had passed and the right side of his brain had been without blood/oxygen for too long, and we learned later in the night that almost the entire right half of his brain has been badly damaged, probably permanently. He will likely never regain mobility or function back in the left side of his body. Those who know my dad know he is "go-man", he is one of the most active almost-63-year-olds I know, and it breaks my heart to know he may have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. For the last couple of days, he has been in the neuro ICU, intubated, and heavily sedated. On Monday morning, he had a hemicraniectomy. This is a life-saving surgery involving the removal of the right half of his skull to allow the brain to swell outwards instead of into his brain stem, which would be fatal. He will be in intensive rehab here in Cleveland for the next 6-8 weeks until they operate again to put his skull piece back on. The surgeon said it was good we went forward with the procedure when we did, it was already quite swollen when he opened him up. He will have to continue with inpatient rehab for the following 6-10 months. We do not yet know what kind of functional outcome we will see. There is a chance he will have to have a feeding tube, there is a small chance he will have a breathing tube, there is a chance he will be bedridden, but we are of course hoping for the absolute best right now. We are thankfully at one of the best hospitals in the country, and the care teams have been wonderful. We are very grateful. We have received so many thoughts and prayers already, thank you, we need them. To top it all off, he lost his health insurance coverage last month. It was on his to-do list to get insured again. I do not yet know what medical bills will look like but I can only imagine they will be grave. I have started this fundraiser to hopefully take a little bit of the burden off my mom and family at this time. I do not know if the goal I set out is reasonable, but I do know we have a very long road ahead of us. Please if you can help in any way we would greatly appreciate it. Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Please help us pray for a miracle. We have set up a blog you can check out to see updates on how Dad is doing and other ways you can help. The link is below. You can reach out to me or Mikala as well on our cell phones. - Lanier Blog: https://www.caringbridge.org/public/paulbolmer
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