Yesterday started off with a lazy-daisy morning. Nothing out of the ordinary. We took our time getting ready at the hotel and had to hurry up to the Lounge for breakfast before they closed at 9am. It was super busy and loud in there for breakfast- note to self. Melanie and I both felt like we were intruding on a conference room full of business meetings, lol. After breakfast, we headed to the hospital with no problems and when we got to the hospital, we visited with Eric. His pain had not really improved overnight, and he remembered having some strange dreams in the night where he woke up and felt like he was jerking. He did it twice, but didn't think much of them- besides that they were strange dreams. He was extremely tired and couldn't keep his eyes open. He would be in the middle of a sentence and his eyes would start rolling back in his head, so we told him just to sleep- we would go out and let him get some rest and be back soon. We walked down to the Ploen Chit shopping center again- passing the Pakistan Embassy again. I didn't see my little girl.
We walked around and found a little Malikali Thai Massage shop that looked nice and clean, so we sat down for our 1 hour Thai foot and leg massage. It was awesome. A quiet room, comfy chairs and relaxing- amazing massage. They worked over our feet and legs and even did a head and neck and shoulder massage that moved down our arms and even included our hands.
We have a thing for getting a little more than we paid for lately! haha. The little ladies would gossip amongst themselves in Thai and giggle and it made us feel like they were laughing at us. I finally made eye contact with one of them while she was giggling and I smiled like- "I know you're laughing and if it's at me- that's not very nice ;) lol" She just smiled and the giggling stopped after that.
Melanie and I both spent our nice, quiet relaxing hour thinking prayers in our hearts for our family and especially for Eric.
We came out and paid for our massages- 300 Baht- so $10 for an amazing massage. Awesome. When we were finished, we went downstairs to the food court and ate something called Roti Spring Rolls for lunch at Lee's cafe. Neither of us were very hungry, so 3 springrolls each was more than enough to fill us up. We weren't entirely sure what was in them, but it resembled a white cheese, ham and seaweed. Surprisingly, I couldn't taste the seaweed- it was just more...stringy...and kindof "Gaggy"...is that a word?
Anyway- after lunch, with our Coke- in a can- with no ice and seaweed spring rolls, we stopped at a street vendor and bought some Mangosteen to take back to Eric. Then went to the Tajmahal custom tailor shop to pick up Monty's shirts and order Justin some custom shirts. I felt bad that I hadn't thought to order some for him the first time but without measurements I didn't think they could make any. Well- I asked-- and they said they would. Cause Sonnee is awesome. So I picked out some rad colors (babe, you're going to be so proud ;)) and they said they would have them ready the next day. Super cool.
At this point in time we thought that with some pain management, we might be breaking Eric out of the hospital early and getting him on a plane back to the US with us as early as Saturday. So we thought we would need Sonnee to hurry on the shirts.
Well- I paid for Justin's custom shirts- I'm so excited to see how they turn out! I hope he loves them. I'm kindof worried one of them might be too "Kablam! on the color, but we'll see!
We headed back to the hospital. We passed the fish tank full of dead fish again. Grody. I took a picture this time. I'm sure they fed those fish to some poor unsuspecting people too! (Not really...it's actually customary in Thailand to allow customers to pick which fish they want to eat- like we do with Crab or Lobster- so they know full well that their fish was already dead- and they don't care).
We passed by the Pakistan Embassy again on our way back and our little girl was there again, so Melanie gave her some of the Mangosteen she had bought for Eric, and the little girl giggled her little shy giggle again and it just pierced my heart. I just love her.
We got back to the hospital and Melanie and I settled onto the couch- as usual- I would do my writing and visit with Eric and Melanie cut up some fruit for him and would catch up on E-mails. Eric was still incredibly tired and wasn't feeling or looking very good. He kept saying that he felt disconnected and we couldn't get him to finish his sentences very well- like he would get lost in thought.
He called the nurses in to help him to the bathroom- like he usually does- and when they came to help him up, he got super dizzy- like you feel when you stand up to fast- and that's just what we thought he did, but he was super shakey. The nurse got him over to the bathroom but it took a long time and he was moving extra slow. We worried that he hadn't been eating much because of his lack or urgency to use the bathroom- he wasn't havin much of an appetite. He came back out of the bathroom and it took 2 nurses to steady him to get him back to the recliner by his bed. Melanie decided to heat up some soup for him so we could try to get him to eat and he sat in his chair half asleep while she was in the other room.
She brought his soup out to him and put it on the table in front of him and came over and sat back down by me. I looked up at him and he was slowly taking a bite of soup. I looked back down and back up a second later and he had his arm out to his side- not a normal "eating position" and he had glassey eyes and a confused look on his face. I asked him "Eric! Do you know what you're doing?" and that's when IT happened.
We ran over and took the spoon out of his hand and sat him back in his chair and his eyes started to spin and the right side of his body started to shake like he was having a seizure. I had Melanie hold his head to the chair while I ran and told the nurse to get a doctor. I went back to the room and Melanie held his hand while I held his face in my hands and tried to help him focus. His eyes were bouncing all over the room and he was getting frustrated and confused and tears started to roll down his face. He had no grip in his left hand and couldn't control the shaking in his right, and he was struggling to keep his eyes from rolling back in his head. Time stood still while Melanie ran out and demanded that the doctor come NOW. I just had to keep his eyes open and keep him talking. He couldn't muddle more than a few words, but that was good enough for me.
The doctor came after about 5 minutes. Felt like 5 years, and his tremmors had slowed down and he was starting to relax, but the shaking in his right arm and right side of his neck didn't stop completely.
She assessed him and asked him some questions. He could respond when she asked him to, but had an elevated heart rate and couldn't stop shaking and couldn't focus his eyes or attention. The nurse gave him an IV injection of a strong muscle relaxer/sedative that knocked him out and stopped the shaking.
Dr. Prinyurat (his neurologist- who has been primarily treating him since his diagnosis) called the ICU and they came and had to shove a blanket under him to lift him from his chair to his bed. They moved him downstairs for monitoring, and EEG, and an MRI.
We packed up the room and went down and talked to him. He wasn't very coherent and didn't understand where he was or what was going on. He kept waking up saying "This bed is so much more comfortable than my last one." We finally told him enough times to get him to understand where he was and why- what was going on and what they were going to do. He was frustrated and exhausted.
They called in the specialist who deals with seizures, and he assed Eric and said that he did not think this was a seizure for several reasons. Eric could control the muscles in his hand to grip the doctors fingers when she asked him to- and that's not typical with seizure victims, he was also coherent and responsive during his "episode" and that is also not typical. They have diagnosed it as a rare side effect to the pain medication which is affecting his muscles and causing them to spasm uncontrollably. He's also experiencing extreme fatigue and cottonmouth- which are other side effects of the medication.
They ran the EEG while we were there and it came out clean, and they kept Eric sedated for the rest of the night.
10 O'clock rolled around and they told us visiting hours were over so we had to leave. It was hard to leave him, but there was nothing else we could do for him, so we headed back to the hotel and tried to sleep.
*** I really wish I could post some of the pictures I've been taking** If you're like me- you don't like to read posts without pictures- haha, but I don't have any camera cords or SD card readers...so, you'll have to wait.
Sorry friends
Pray for Eric.
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