My gpa

My grandpa hasn't been doing too well these past few months. His health has slowly been going down & deteriorating. He's been to several drs but no one can seem to figure out what exactly is wrong with him. Finally this past weekend my family convinced him to go to UAMS so hopefully they can figure out what the problem is. He checked in (after waiting several hours in the ER) and got a room last night around 4 am. I called to check in with everyone around 7 this morning & found out that they had done a CT scan & were making plans to do an MRI & an MRA today (and a few other tests). Anyways, they have a vague idea of a few things that might be the problem but they don't want to speculate & say just yet. We know basically what we are dealing with but it is just hard not knowing for sure. They will not discharge him from the hospital until they have figured out what is wrong & a possible treatment plan-which is very good news.

I played hooky this afternoon & went to spend a few hours visiting. It was really hard to see my grandpa (he's 73 & was still working every day) in a hospital bed & looking so helpless. But I was glad I got to spend a few hours with both my grandparents alone this afternoon. I told Blake I figured out where I get my habit of making jokes (sometimes bad jokes) to lighten things up from (gpa lol). Gpa was content for the most part, the nurses weren't letting him eat anything BUT he got the keep his snuff so he was happy! The nurses were not giving us any type of update & I kept asking for one. I finally found a nurse & got her to page the dr & she called & asked for an update for us. I was very thankful to finally get some info. I then got to pass it along to the rest of my family & my grandparents. I left around 2 b/c gpa was supposed to be getting ready for another test & he needed some sleep. We are still waiting for more tests & it is very frustrating.

I was telling Blake that with all the other waste of time drs I started losing my faith in medical science & these idiot drs not finding anything. I was reminded of a passage in 1 of my favorite books about this very thing........I thought I would share. If you choose not to read it-fine, but I think it sums up my frustration & how even the best drs in the world are not doing anything but making an educated guess.

Cody took a bottle out of his bag and tossed it to Ben, who caught it. "Aspirin," he said. "Ever use it?"
"A lot."
"My dad used to call it the good doctor's best nurse. Do you know how it works?"
"No," Ben said. He turned the bottle of aspirin idly in his hands, looking at it. He did not know Cody well enough to know what he usually showed or kept hidden, but he was sure that few of his patients saw him like this-the boyish, Norman Rockwell face overcast with thought and introspection. He didn't want to break Cody's mood.
"Neither do I. Neither does anybody else. But it's good for headache and arthritis and the rheumatism. We don't know what any of those are, either. Why should your head ache? There are no nerves in your brain. We know that aspirin is very close in chemical composition to LSD, but why should one cure the ache in the head and the other cause the head to fill up with flowers? Part of the reason we don't understand is because we don't really know what the brain is. The best-educated doctor in the world is standing on a low island in the middle of a sea of ignorance. We rattle our medicine sticks and kill our chickens and read messages on blood. All of that works a surprising amount of time. White magic. Bene gris-gris. My med school profs would tear their hair if they could hear me say that...." -Salems Lot-S.K.

Anyways, that about sums it up..........I don't know how long my gpa will be in the hospital but I hope they figure something out. I've heard UAMS is a pretty good hospital but I've got a few doubts (mostly from other things-bad contaminating procedures that I saw today & flipped out over) but I'll try to stay positive. I'll try to post updates about it if I can.