Marty Update

Below is what I received via e-mail when I woke this morning.  Marty continues to be in the hospital and they are still not able to find out what has happened to make his brain functioning go haywire.

I am thrilled to know, though, that his oldest son, Steven, has been accepted at the University of Illinois.  In my last conversation with Marty, he was so hoping this would be the case. Steven attended 4 years of HS at an exam school which is part of the U of I campus, and he has thrived in the program.  He has also became an Eagle Scout last week.  Lots to be very proud of.
I do not know how Karen can be there day in and day out with the frustration of not knowing, what will happen with Marty.  She says the hallucinations continue through most of the day, as she mentions "the voices." Sam is their younger son, 14.  Thank you everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Hard day today. Sam & I left him about 8. Thought he would have the spinal tap done today- seemed like we were waiting all weekend for it- now it will be tomorrow. Looking for some obscure infection or ruling it out at least. The anti-seizure med- Dilantin – levels wouldn’t stay up in therapeutic range even though they kept increasing it. So they switched that to a different one. They had started an anti-psychotic drug and that one Marty didn’t like the way it made him feel so they are going to try a different type of that medicine tonight. Whatever the combination of things they gave him last night or the amount made him sleep all night but… all day too. Could barely get him to wake up through the day. They cut one of those meds in half for the dosage now.

Something made his heart rate and blood pressure go pretty high while I was gone around dinner time so now they also have used some beta blockers. The doctor had said they would have to watch him with the new anti-seizure med as some people have some heart rate issues with that.

All in all it was a pretty frustrating waiting, waiting, waiting day and despite all this he still has the voices ragging on him pretty hard. It’s all a little hard to see him like this and a bit scarey. He’s just not himself, and he knows it, and he doesn’t like it. Sorry to not be the bearer of better news tonight but thought I should give you an update. Hopefully we will have betters answers soon.

Good news is that Steven found out on Friday that he got accepted to the U of I for next fall in Mechanical Engineering and we were able to share that with Marty. Steven is still waiting to hear from another school but has pretty much had Illinois on the top of his list. His high school is located right in the middle of the Engineering campus on the U of I.

Love, Karen