Where do I begin?

I've never done a blog before but as a favor to my favorite cousin, Janet, I told her I would help her out to capture details of her father's medical condition.

Jason Yune is my uncle and someone I am very close to. Instead of calling him Uncle Jason in this blog I'll refer to him as Yunie as he always asks his customers to call him. I don't mean any disrespect by calling him this but just know that that is how I will refer to him for the purposes of this blog.

Yunie started having complaints of a severe headache in January of 2011. I actually think it dates back earlier than that but that is the date that my aunt, Sung Yune, remembers. For several months he has had intense headaches and has had severe bouts of nausea leading to vomiting and in some cases, diarrhea. He has gone to the doctor several times at Kaiser but the doctors prescribed him some medications for his stomach and told him to take Ibuprofen for his headaches.

This past Monday, February 28th, Yunie told his wife, Sung, that his headaches were getting worse and worse. He had no appetite and could barely work. If any of you know Yunie, you know he is energetic and full of life and nothing stops him. Well, this week he has had a hard time so he went to the doctor on Tuesday March 1st and the doctor again told him it was just a bad virus.

On Thursday, March 3rd, my cousin, Janet, Yunie's eldest child, knew something was wrong. After speaking with him she realized he was suffering from some memory loss. Yunie thought it was November and could not remember customers names - for any of you who know Yunie, you know he is amazing with remembering every customer's name. That is his gift. Janet noticed his speech was slurred and that combined with his memory loss, she knew something was wrong. She called 911 and sent an ambulance over to the deli, "Campus Cafe" that Yunie and his wife, Sung, manage and operate in Carlsbad. The paramedics took him to Tri City Hospital in Oceanside (4002 Vista Way, Oceanside). Yunie was admitted and after an MRI the doctors diagnosed that he had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke which is caused by a blood vessel in the brain that breaks and bleeds into the brain.

The doctors performed an endovascular procedure for the aneurysm. In this procedure, a radiologist passes a catheter (thin tube) through the artery to the opening into an aneurysm. Detachable platinum coils are then deposited in the aneurysm to fill it up and prevent blood from entering, eliminating the possibility of hemorrhage. The procedure took several hours and luckily went well. He was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) around 11:30 pm last night (3/3/2011).

I visited him this morning around 10 am and went into his room to check on him. He has a breathing tube and is hooked up to all types of IV's, etc. He was not alert so I was not able to communicate with him. Mark, one of the nurses, told me that his case was very very unusual. The hematoma that resulted is in the frontal lobe and he and the other nurses and medical staff were amazed he made it this far.

Nurses and doctors kept coming in and out of his room all day today (Friday 3/4). Around 4:30 pm Yunie may have suffered a seizure (this is not confirmed as the doctors are not 100% sure what happened). The doctors stated that due to the thinning blood arteries near the aneurysm Yunie was suffering from this irritation which was causing spasms in his body. Immediately following this "stroke", Dr. Olson ordered a CT scan and in the scan they found that one of the blood vessels near the carotid artery was indeed thinning. Dr. Olson advised the need to do an intercranial balloon angioplasty which is a procedure where a wire attached to a balloon is inserted into the artery in order to widen the collapsed vein area in the brain. Failure to do the procedure could lead to a high likelihood of a massive stroke. The procedure was performed by Dr. Yoo, a neurosurgeon, and it went well but Dr. Yoo told Janet that this procedure is very TEMPORARY and he would not be surprised if he had to perform many more procedures like this on Yunie over the next 14-21 days. At this point, the doctors want to avoid any type of re-rupture or rupture period.

For now, they've stabilized the area. Yunie still has a hematoma, or a localized collection of blood, in his left temporal frontal lobe. The doctors say that is probably the worst place to have it as the left temporal lobe is the area of the brain that controls memory, speech, etc.

The next goal will be to take the breathing tube out. Yunie is being assisted by a breathing tube which must be very uncomfortable but until he can respond to the doctors they cannot remove it. He is at risk for future aneurysms, spasms, and a variety of other issues.

Yunie is still in very critical condition and has some serious problems. He will require very intensive care for the next several weeks and possibly months. At this point, it's still too early to diagnose or tell what will happen next but for now, the family is taking it day-by-day.

We thank you for your love, support, and prayers and ask that you respond to this blog or to helenbarker@me.com if you have any questions in order to alleviate the amount of stress placed on family members and particularly Janet.

I'll be updating the blog regularly as I can. Thanks for your reading!