Doctors...

Went to see Dr. C yesterday morning, and then Dr. A stopped by for a home visit.

Potassium is a little low, so there's a new pill, and we learned that the standard course of Lovenox is three months -- one more month to go.

Diana isn't getting any worse, but she's not really getting any better, either. I'm wanting to blame spinal fluid, because it's obviously still there, but in her own subtle way, Dr. A reminded us that we still have the kidney thing. Dr. C doesn't want to deal with that until Dr. R resolves the spinal fluid thing. Pushing him would probably bring up the surgical options, and Diana would really rather not do that if she doesn't have to.

The Diamox does seem to have some effect, but it also seems to be a short-term solution -- the right-side neuropathy improves within an hour of taking it, only to return eight to ten hours later. Meanwhile, I don't think the swelling around the incision site is going down. It's more like it's spreading.

Dr. R gets back to town on Monday -- that'll mark the three-week period we were going to try this for, so we'll see what happens then.

I didn't talk about the surgical options, did I? (reads back) Nope.

Basically, it's the age old art of trepanation. They'd drill a small burr hole on the left side of her scalp to relieve pressure there. The next (and I think simultaneous) procedure would be to use an endoscope (or whatever the brain surgery equivalent is) to make a small hole close to where the clogged drain is now (the third ventricle, rather than the fourth). If they can't do that, then there's a shunt that runs under the skin all the way from the skull to the abdomen. As brain surgeries go, it's a lot less invasive than what she's had already, but it's pretty easy to understand why we'd rather not go that route. (The phrase, 'like another hole in the head' comes to mind..)

We had yet another sleet-turned-snow storm last week, followed by single-digit temps. The City Streets division put out a press release that basically said, "It's snow over ice, it's too cold for salt to work, and we really don't have any salt left anyway. We're screwed." I thought that summed up the situation pretty well. We'll come into March with a foot of snow on the ground, but they say it'll be warmer.