[TheForge] FW: Ken Zastrow

[April & Bill Clemens]

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Morris [mailto:remwillow at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 10:51 PM
 Subject: Ken Zastrow

Hi all,
I just received a message from Nancy about Kens stroke. Ken has a very
large 
blood clot in his carotid artery and because of it's size, the surgeons
have 
decided to try to disolve it instead of operating. He has gotten through
the 
first 24 hours and that is a plus.The photos this morning indicated that
the 
stroke was still expanding, and covers a large part of the left brain.
The 
doctor said, However, with a stroke of this size it is incredible that
he 
can respond to simple commands, can under stand us and signal with his
eyes 
or hand squeeze. After a hard morning, when he was mostly inert and not 
responsive, he started to move a lot more in the afternoon. Shortly
before 
Nancy left tonight the nurse had put him on his side, his preferred way
of 
sleeping, and he got a little smile and held her hand tightly until he
went 
to sleep. Because the area of the clot has some bleeding in it, they are
not 
even giving him aspirin which is the first step in the "old fashoned"
method 
of attack that they have adopted due to confusion and delay during that 
valuable window of the first 3 hrs. after it begins. Nancy and the
children 
have not been given a very optimistic outcome, but his left-handedness
is 
the wild card and they can't really say how it will be or what will
happen. 
All we can do is hope and pray.