{The Image I shared was removed, sorry}
This must have happened towards the end of last week (the beginning of August). Here is one of the updates with the most info from August 2nd but I'm sure over the weekend there were more updates and changes. Once again I'm referring you to their Facebook pages (because I don't have Facebook) ~Peggy
| Dad Update: Friday, August 2nd, 2019 from Missy
"It has been a roller coaster of events the past few days, and we are grateful for all the ways friends and family are checking in and praying, from all over.
Here is where we have landed as of now. I'm a bullet point type of person, so here we go.
*The basic gist is that we still don't know WHAT is causing this.
*For that reason, Dad is being moved (today) to a larger hospital in downtown Knoxville where there will be a team of specialist to try and trouble shoot the problem. (Neurology, Cardio, Pulmonologist, Rheumotologist....and.....)
*One of the specialist is the infectious disease doctor, which does seem to be the most likely culprit. It is possible that he contracted some sort of infection during his 6 weeks on the Appalachian Trail.
*Many of you have asked about Lymes disease and at this point they can't know that, but he is being treated with antibiotics that would cover a lot of things.
*WHATEVER is infecting his body appears to be presenting in many ways. I.E. what we thought was pneumonia, may not be pneumonia. High White Blood count that now looks abnormally normal. Heart attack that probably wasn't a heart attack. A massive stroke that was actually a long series of mini strokes happening over the course of several days. It appears that he had a large blood clot travel to the brain and burst. Most strokes are localized to one particular spot, but dad has 50-100 spots scattered throughout both sides of the brain, situated mostly in the back, but again, on both sides. They tell us this is very unusual.
*The burst blood clot caused him to lose his vision and also caused a massive amount of dementia type memory loss and confusion. That has been a very scary aspect to all of this. We are happy to report that as of this afternoon the fog is lifting and Dad is understanding more and conversing with us. His vision has improved some. Before he could only see light and silhouettes, but now he can make us out and see color (but not all colors). His eyes themselves are fine, this is a brain processing issue. We are unsure of the prognosis on that.
*In Summary- At this point they've done a good job at checking the major things and clearing them, and now have to focus on figuring out what the underlying cause is. There are things on the table, but at this time I'm not going to speculate until we get to the new hospital and see the new team of Doctors. The hospital he is going to is attached to a very well known stroke rehab clinic, so he will also be able to be seen there (in time).
*That's what we know. We are thankful that some of the scarier symptoms are looking a bit better this evening.
You can
-Pray that there are no more blood clots waiting to do their nasty thing, and that this team of doctors are able to identify the underlying mystery illness that is causing all of this mayhem.
-Pray also for patience and strength for Dad, and for Mom as she cares for and keeps track of things.
-Pray for Dad's mental state to keep improving. -Pray for Mom as she has had her own health issues this year.
My brother Adam and I are here through the weekend and taking turns staying at the hospital. We'd love to have some definitive answers and a plan of healing pretty soon!
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