He is survived by his son Christopher (20), daughter Noelle (17), and grand son Ryan Sirus (7 months).

He fought and fought hard, but his condition deteriorated so quickly in a 12 hour period that his doctors only gave him a 1% chance of survival.  Most of the evidence points to multiple strokes as a result of numerous clots being lodged in his brain, leaving him in a coma. 

The decision to pull life-support was left to the family, but the doctors were unanimous in their recommendation.  I hope and pray that none of you – especially if you are a mother – will ever be in a position to make a decision as difficult as the one my mother and the rest of us had to make.  Even knowing that the decision was absolutely the right one, it was one of the most difficult things we had to endure.

Viewing will be on Thursday, October 18, between 6:00 and 9:00pm and memorial services will be on Friday at 2:00pm.  

The funeral home information:

http://www.dignitymemorial.com/7370/LocalHome.aspx?id=home&LocNumbNLang=7370&LoadDefault=0

The legs come into play because there is a chance he might have had a clot develop as a result of him having been in bed for so long, and the clot could have come loose and lodged itself in an artery.  The cardiogram is going to show if a heart attack indeed took place, and also how extensive the damagage is.  The cardiologist has not been around to reveal the result of the cardiogram.

Typically when someone has a heart attack he/she is put on blood thinners to eliminate any clots, etc. So we are not sure how they are going to handle this situation since Shahin is already got some issues with his blood platelets, etc.

As of right now his blood pressure is very low, he is running a fever, and he continues to be non-responsive.

I’m again asking you for your prayers.  It worked before and it WILL work again.

They ended up having to put the tube that goes through his nose to his stomach to help pump out the build-up back in as he has been nauseous for the last few days.  Not a pleasant thing to have a tube shoved up your nose, but he tolerated it and is feeling better.  We are back to one tube in each nostril.

His white count is now up in the 8,000 range with the help of the Leukemia medication.  There is thought about stopping the administration of this drug tomorrow to see if he can maintain the count by himself.  Let’s hope he does.

He is also on a variety of antibiotics to make sure that if there are any infections, they being attacked.

He is completely off the ventilator and is breathing nicely by himself.  He can actually make some sounds with his mouth and make himself understood at times. 

His kidneys are still partially working and liver is doing OK too.

Daily score: 6

They put in 3 bridges instead of sutures (I personally have never heard of this), so there is no chance of rupture again.

His white cell count is up to the 3,000 range, which is another plus for the day.

He is still having a hard time maintaining his platelets, so he gets some on a daily basis.

Overall, he is doing well.  I’m hearing that his sense of humor is in full swing, which is a great sign of his mental strength being were it needs to be.  He is one heck of a fighter.  I can’t be any prouder to have him as a brother.  When I grow up (I’m a few days short of 50) I want to be just like Shahin!

His daily score: 6

His white cell count dropped to 1,900 yesterday.  As a result, he was put on medication typically reserved for leukemia  patients to help boost the white count.  As of this morning he was back to 2,100.  Still very low, but we are hoping that the medication will continue to increase the count.

A few days ago I wrote that his internal sutures had ruptured as a result of pressure build-up due to water retention in his abdominal cavity.  His doctor said that he no longer can wait to repair the opening and will be operating on him on Friday as he could see Shahin’s insides through the opening.  The good news is that he could visually see that the inflammation of the intestine had subsided significantly. A good sign that the CIDIFF infection is being controlled effectively.

His kidneys and liver are getting better and better every day.  Dialysis is only being done sporadically these days.  A very encouraging sign.

They have left the tracheotomy tube alone for now in case his condition gets worse.  

His daily score: 5.5 

On a positive note, they are going to replace his tracheotomy tube with a smaller one which will allow him to easily cover it when he wants to speak.  It will be good to hear his voice again.

Shahin has lost a lot of weight and muscle mass.  The physiotherapists have started working on him to start getting him ready to start walking, etc.  He weighed around 140 pounds when I was in Oklahoma.  Down from the 180 range.  Hopefully he’ll be on his feet in no time, followed by being able to get some solid food in his stomach.  He’s been on the IV food for over a month now.  His stomach must be the size of a golf ball.

Daily score: 6

Never thought I’d be happy to report a bowl movement and a little bit of urine!!!  There are certainly positive signs, and we are hoping for more. 

Outside of that, there really is very little news to report.  He is holding nicely in all areas.  Any improvements are certainly not visible to the naked eye.  They will probably be doing another scan soon to see if the walls of his intestine are normalizing with all the CDIFF-killer medication they are administering. 

Daily score: 6.5 

There is no way Shahin will be out of ICU by his birthday.  It was wishfull thinking on my part to begin with.  I will happily take end of October at this point.

They have stopped the broad spectrum antibiotics, so the CDIFF is still beig attaked without a chance to multiply agian.

I’m so glad my mom is down there, as no matter how good the nurses are, they still tend to miss things, but mom is on top of things… Like bed sores, pools of blood, etc. that get missed by the nurses.

Shahin was moved to a room with a better view and away from the main enterance to this particular ICU unit.  His new room number is ICU#32. 

Remember, you can send him persoanl messages at http://www.mercyok.net/email/mhc/default.asp.  Just make sure you use the room number above.

Shahin’s daily score, holding at 6.5.

They had noticed a ‘shadow’ on his liver yesterday.  They took him into the OR yet again and placed a needle into his liver to check it out.  A risky proposal, again, due to his low blood platelets, but thank God it went well and they did not find anything wrong with the liver.

He is off the continuous dialysis and on 3.5 hours a day version.  This should help him retain more of the platelets, as dialysis does eat them up quickly.

His white count is now too far bellow normal.  It’s in the 5000 range.  What does not make sense to me is that they are saying it’s due to yet another infection.  Back to detective work again.  The only way to address an unknown infection is to administer a broad spectrum antibiotic.  Let’s just hope that this does not open up the opportunities to the CDIFF virus.

Most of you know Shahin and know that he is a very compassionate, loving and caring person.  To reinforce what you know already, he mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to my mom, probably because he saw the anguish my mom was in due to his pains and condition and feeling bad about what she is going through.  If nothing else, I hope this serves as motivation for him to want to get better, faster.  I am a firm believer in the power of mind over matter.

No score change as his overall condition is still pretty steady.