So, here goes....
After doing his morning farm chores on May 24th, Vaughan began to notice his legs were not working quite right on his way back up to the house. He complained he didn't feel well and it was clear something was going dreadfully wrong.
He was able to walk into Chelsea Hospital with support, and immediately taken back to a room. Within a two hour span, he had lost complete fuction in both legs. No injury, no illness, no symptoms of being sick or back problems, nothing. The ER physician (who was fantastic by the way) was aggressive in treating him and trying to figure out what was going on. He perfomed a Spinal and blood tests, MRI and by early afternoon decided that Vaughan needed to be moved to the main hospital. That trip to took a little longer than expected, but finally we arrived at the hospital early evening. BTW - three ambulance rides in one day is a bit much.
We had been expecting to see a lot of activity upon arrival, but for some reason the 'A Team' we figured would be waiting for us didn't get the memo. To add to the delay, he ended up in a Cardiac unit and it was obvious that his heart was not the problem. So we go into a holding pattern for several hours until Lila's brother, who is a physician at the hospital, called Cam to see what was happening. Uh,not much. In less than 30 minutes Physicians showed up in number, including spine surgeons with pretty impressive resumes.
Orders were given for two additional MRIs, with a battery of tests for things like ALS, MS, Lupis, Lyme disease, all sorts of exotic things. In fact, some tests we have been told, require out of state testing facilities because they don't even do some of them in Michigan. Two additional tests were ordered - Echo and Cardiac CT, more blood tests and visits by a myriad of doctors who seemed pretty baffled but had finally narrowed it down to two preliminary diagnoses: Acute Spinal Chord Ischemia (stroke of the spine) and Transverse Myelitis. Both extremely rare and difficult to diagnose.
Finally, on Day #5 we are pretty sure the root cause for Vaughan's paralysis is a stroke in the anterior artery of the spine. This area of the spine controls the muscles, which explains why he still has sensory feelings, but not movement.
Vaughan is now on a 2nd type of steriods (five day regimin) to reduce the inflamation in his spinal chord and allow the nerves to begin to heal and (hopefully) function again. More test results will begin to come in - although unless those results change treatment, reducing inflamation is what we really care about at this point. Physical and Occupational Therapy has started and he is on the Rehab floor.
He isn't in pain, but gets really uncomfortable and restless. Sometimes cranky, but not too bad. For a guy used to physical labor and being outdoors every day of his life, being unable to move your legs is frustrating and hard, but his attitude is great.
So now the waiting begins. We don't know how he will respond to the steroids so we will wait. Wait to see if the blood flow improves. Wait to see if there are additional tests, wait for the five days to pass, wait to see if we have more questions than answers, wait for the movement to begin to comeback in his legs, and then wait some more.
We know there are months of hard work and physical therapy ahead.....and we may need to make some changes at the house (not exactly the remodel job I was hoping for.) But Vaughan is strong, healthy and has a faith that will get where God has put him. Whether he makes a full recovery, or never walks again, it really will be okay. Easy to say before the really hard work begins but we KNOW we will not be alone on the journey.
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