Monday, November 26, 2007

Monday Afternoon

It's official - 8 am Tuesday morning. The nurse said they'd probably take her down around 6 am, so I'll get up early tomorrow.

We're still waiting for the 'stealth' MRI. I don't think it's done in secret, but there's some sort of an acronym involved. A PA came in mid-morning, and glued what look like a series of life-savers around her skull, and eventually she'll go down for another MRI. I guess this surgeon likes to have 3-D image of the tumor before surgery.

dp is definitely feeling better today. She's slept a good part of the afternoon, and her breathing is much more regular than it was yesterday. Her blood pressure is a lot better, too -- it was up to 200/100 for awhile yesterday, but the last I saw today was 148/86. She's finished a bowl of grapes (peeled - don't ask) and a half a bag of potato chips. That's the most she's eaten in over 10 days, so it's definitely an improvement.

The anesthesiologist just came in with the anesthesia consent form. Given that we'd already signed the surgery consent, this one seems like a good idea. Following close behind were two other guys from anesthesiology, asking if dp wanted to be in a study. She'll be given a drug called mannitol (a hyperosmotic agent) to reduce the pressure of fluids in her head during surgery. They want to get blood samples from her over a 12 hour period to try and get a better profile of how it lasts in the blood. No extra sticks, so we said ok.

Cross your fingers, say your prayers, and I'll post some more tomorrow.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kev:
I was going to try and write a summary of Thanksgiving weekend, but nothing could really compare with Sam's great description. Suffice to say that there was no discussion of ex-spouses or nausea here. You and dp were with us, all, all the time. We love you, you're strong, we're with you.

Love,
Else

Anonymous said...

Kev:
I was going to try and write a summary of Thanksgiving weekend, but nothing could really compare with Sam's great description. Suffice to say that there was no discussion of ex-spouses or nausea here. You and dp were with us, all, all the time. We love you, you're strong, we're with you.

Love,
Else

Anonymous said...

Dear Kevin and Diana,

Friends,family and total strangers will be praying for both of you tomorrow. Please give Diana a kiss and a hug for me.

Love,
Cousin Carol and Fred

Cranium Man said...

Here we go! I called early this morning and Kevin's phone was already off - the signal that he's at the hospital. We will all be concentrating very hard today to get anything else done. Peace be with all of you.

nancyturtle said...

This is one time I'm grateful for working the night shift. I don't have to concentrate on anything today except sleep. Not that that will be easy, but at least I won't hurt anyone doing it badly.