My weekend sucked... but then today came.

My mood all weekend.
Tornadoes were imminent.

So, I’m posting an update on Sam. Last Thursday night/Friday morning she had a stroke. Which may be strange if you don’t understand the circumstances. She was eclamptic (not a good thing) and apparently didn’t tell anyone what was going on with her. She stroked at work, which I guess is a good place to have a stroke being in a hospital and all. Well, they had to do emergency surgery to save the spawn.

Willow and Seth were born early Friday morning. They’re both on respirators and in incubators. Because they were only 5 months along, they will be hanging out in the NICU for a while yet. But they’re cute as shit for such tiny things. I guess calling them the “spawn” is a good nickname.

Sam was in a coma and they did preliminary neurology tests on Friday and Saturday. She had minimal brain activity, which prompted a freakout from me. Gina said that she’d retest her Tuesday (today) and see what they could do.

Mrs. Ryan (Sam’s mom) and Keely (Sam’s sister) came Friday. My brother Dov and his wife Sarah came in from Boston on Saturday, leaving their kids with Sarah’s family.

Normally, there are six adults, two kids and two dogs at our house. Kevin (my gay best friend who lives in our basement, which sounds wrong...), Hana (my younger sister), Tali & Ara (my two best friends growing up), Sam and I. Then there’s our son and daughter, Ben and Chaya. And Buddy and Kitty, the dogs.

Because of my almost nervous breakdown, Dov, his wife, Hana and Ara have been corralling my oldest two through the weekend. Mrs Ryan and Keely have been trying to get me to take better care of myself (eating and sleeping for example) and Tali’s been shadowing me to make sure I don’t actually lose it.

Kevin was pulled in on Sam’s surgery (he’s a neonatal surgeon, and has since become acting Chief of Neonatal surgery) and he did awesome. I haven’t left the hospital since Friday morning for longer than a couple hours at a time.

Well, my favourite resident Erin (who is now Chief Resident) decided that she needed to get me something to do to take my mind off things. So, she went to my boss and asked him if he would reinstate me from my leave of absence. He agreed and Erin dragged me off to the OR. I have been doing surgery since Saturday and it’s been the one thing that’s kept me from annoying the living shit out of Kevin and Gina.

Yesterday, my evil second-in-command (my arch-nemesis) was fired and his douche-y son was put on suspension. I was overjoyed because they would make my life a living hell. I did my surgery and waited for this morning and Sam’s retesting.

At 7 AM, I went as quickly as I could to her room only to find her missing. I’m really glad one of the nurses told me they had taken her to neurology early otherwise I’d have the biggest freakout of my life. So, I headed to neurology and Gina showed me the MRI and CAT results. Sam’s brain activity was higher than it was three or so days before. Then she told me she had a brilliant idea, but if it didn’t work I couldn’t sue her.

Molecular model for adrenaline

Normally, I love this crazy old bat to death, but I wasn’t in the mood for joking. What was her idea? Load Sam up with adrenaline and see if she wakes. The only downside is that by doing so, we may cause her to go into cardiac arrest. Not good.

But, she outlined the statistics to me and they were acceptable. Better than some of the cases I work on. So, I said go for it.

At 9 AM or so, her EEG went haywire. She was starting to wake. Around 10, her eyes were moving and her fingers were twitching. And I was doing my ADHD ten year old trick (pacing, tapping things, throwing a ball at the wall). This is the most we had gotten out of her since before the stroke, so I was nervous as hell.

The complications (like with any stroke) were permanent brain damage, a physical handicap or memory issues since we had gotten away with the adrenaline trick not causing a heart attack. That weighed in my mind heavily and I wanted to go smoke but I couldn’t leave her bedside. I called Mrs. Ryan and Keely instead.

It was almost 1 PM by the time she opened her eyes. I freaked. Gina came in and looked her over. She still can’t talk yet and you can tell she had a stroke since the left side of her faces droops a bit, but I don’t give a shit. SAM IS AWAKE AND ALIVE!

My siblings brought the munchkins and you could tell Sam was happy even though she couldn’t say it. Chaya is extremely excited (she was convinced Sam wouldn’t wake up because Sam was mad at her) and Benny gave her his stuffed dog because “optals are baaaad”. We’ve managed to keep Mrs. Ryan from smothering her daughter.

Now, throughout this, my siblings and Kevin have been moving our stuff to the new house in Omaha. One of my scrub nurses is going to let me crash at hers until Sam and the spawn’re out of the hospital because apparently on-call rooms are not good for you.

My mood now. It's all good.

Currently, Mrs. Ryan, Kevin and Keely are at mass to celebrate. I’m sitting next to my sleeping wife (waking up is exhausting, as is trying to speak). Dov and Sarah are helping the “ninjas” (Tali and Ara) with something and Hana is watching the older two.

I have never been more thankful for anything in my life. Today has been fucking awesome and tiring and emotional. This may be blasphemous, but I don’t care if the Sox go to the Series this year. Sam’s alive and the kids are fine. My world is good.