Friday, October 17th, 8:30pm

Had another visit this evening that went well. The visits are a bit bitter-sweet. I hate to see Ken in pain, but I love to see Ken. Can't have one with out the other for now. We're working on that.

The doctors read Ken's CT Scan from last night, and detected a tear in the carotid artery in the neck (before it forks into the external carotid artery and the internal carotid artery). A flap of tissue on the inside of the artery had come loose and was blocking the artery.

He said they were going to do another cerebral angiogram (like the one done in September by sending a small catheter up through the femeral artery in the groin to the carotid artery in the neck).

After doing this, they discovered that the CT Scan had been misread, and the angiogram showed that the carotid arteries are both fine. "Yea" for no damage to the carotid artery . . . "For Shame" for the dolt that misread the CT Scan.

Yesterday's stroke has left Ken completely paralized on the right side, and he cannot speak. Also, he has no feeling in his mouth and as a result, can not determine when all the food has been voided from the pallet. So, for now, solid food is out. Because he was on Plavix (blood thinner) for SO LONG (about 5 to 6 months @ 5x per day), when he came off of it for the surgery, the blood was no longer able to sqeeze through the blockages.

Any drop in his blood pressure, and the blood simply would not go through depriving the brain tissue on the other side the benefit of oxygen.

Plan of action now is to introduce a bit of plavix now, and use medicine to increase his blood pressure. Once the revascularization process from the surgery is complete ( 6 to 16 weeks) all should be good.

He doesn't look well. I tell myself it is the anesthetic from the angio procedure today. He is having tremmors in his right arm that he can't control. His speech was about the same, but the volume was very low.

Doctor Deshmukh believes that the damage is likely permanant. Physical therapy and speech therapy will be intensive. Ken will be released (hopefully this weekend) into a 24/7 rehab facility. Not sure how long he will stay there.

I'm tired. More tomorrow.