Part 55 Becah’s tale


We went to Baylor outpatient clinic for a second attempt to stretch John’s esophagus in order for him to eat. We got there early and he was taken back to pre-op. The procedure started on time. It took much longer than I imagined though and when I realized I was half way through a novel I had started that morning I got worried. About ten minutes after I inquired about when I would see John, a nurse came to get me and took me back to the recovery area. When I walked in, everyone was panicking. John looked like we was having a grand mal seizure to me and kept repeating over and over, “Please help me God, please help me God…” I asked Dr. Ra- what happened. He said, “he got too sleepy during the procedure and we had to give him Narcan to wake him up quickly. We think he is having a reaction to the Narcan. We have called 911. He will be transported to St. Luke’s ER across the street. You can follow in your car.” I said, “it looks like he is having a seizure to me.” I was told it was not a seizure, but either a reaction to medicine, a stroke, or a brain metastasis. These are all bad, but I was praying for a med reaction at best. We quickly left for St. Luke’s where the stroke team was waiting for us at the entrance.

There were four neurologists working on John. He was numb from the neck down, he could not see anything, and he continued to jerk rapidly and plead for God to help him. Doctors and nurses came in and out of the room rapidly. I begged for answers. There were none. He was making jerking movements too much and had begun to vomit, so an MRI was unable to be performed. Stroke protocol was not initiated because the brain metastasis could not be ruled out without first assessing the problem using the MRI. I looked at Dr. S, who would later become our neurologist of choice, and said, “what can we do”? He said, “Nothing, right now.” I said through tears, “so we are kind of screwed then, one way or the other.” He said, “yes”.

So we waited. My mom was in the room, then my best friends Jeannette and Frances joined us. We all just waited. John continued to jerk for hours. Finally the movements ceased. My mom left to go relieve GG, who was at our house with our children. Frances left too. Jeannette and I stayed in that tiny ER room, waiting and waiting. John finally slept. We had no answers. He was paralyzed and blind but he had stopped jerking. I was grateful for that small miracle. At about 10 p.m. we were told he was stable and being moved to a room on the “neuro” floor. I asked about an MRI, now that he was still. They said they would try again later that night. So we moved, waiting for the answer.

Finally, when the time was deemed right, the MRI was initiated. We would eventually have some answers.