We're back at the U again, this time on the fourth floor, in Dr. C's service.
dp's legs have been getting more painful, to the point where she couldn't sit up without hurting a lot. She's okay if she just lays in bed, but that leads to a host of other problems, so we decided that we should do something. We left home on an ambulance about 3, and they are still getting her settled in here.
She's got a morphine PCA, which allows her to give herself a dose by pushing a button, and a foley catheter.
We're in the palliative care wing of the oncology ward. I think all the rooms on this end are singles, and they try to keep this area much quieter -- there are reminders to close the door, to try to be quiet, and to feel free to complain if you think other people are being too loud.
Dr. C thought he might be able to move the bone scan up from Wed to tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. In the meantime, dp is comfortable enough, but we're still waiting for the Thicken powder so she can drink some real water.
We spent most of the weekend reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We're almost done with that, so now I just have to remember where we stashed the rest of them. I do think the weekend at home was good for her -- she sleeps a lot better in her own bed than she does in any hospital room, so while she is pained, she also well-rested.
Marie seems quite chipper -- she's worried about dp, of course, but looking happy and healthy when I check in on her.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Back in the UIHC
I got a call from St. Luke's about 3 -- they think dp's cognitive skills have been going down, so they called UIHC, talked to the (a?) neurosurgeon, and then called me to say they the neurosurgeon wanted her back.
At present, I'm sitting in the ER waiting room, waiting for dp's ambulance. I'm thinking/hoping that it's probably hydrocephalus, which should be repairable with a magnet -- adjust her shunt valve, and that's that... I hope.
St. Luke's has officially discharged her, I guess -- the nurse said they had packed up all her stuff and sent it along on the ambulance.
Time passes...
Sitting in the ER now -- we've been here for a couple hours, while they took labs and x-rays. The neurologist on call says that they don't see anything wrong with her shunt. He's thinking possibly the UTI and/or some of the meds she's on could have been messing with her.
dp was surprised to hear that St. Luke's was worried about her cognitive skills -- they didn't talk to her at all, until they told her they were loading her up on the ambulance. She was a little disoriented about the time of day, but seemed otherwise on top of things.
More time passes...
Here we are, back on 6JCW. The food is better here than UIHC, so dp's chowing down on fish, cheese sticks, a chocolate shake and a banana. They've stopped the new muscle relaxant (skelaxin) St. Luke's gave her, as well as one of the anti-emetics we've been doing for quite a while, and maybe a couple of others. He tripled the antibiotic to go after the UTI. They'll monitor for a couple days, and we'll see what happens next.
There is an advantage to being VRE-colonized -- we get a single room, which is way better than the double (Not any more plush, just quieter).
At present, I'm sitting in the ER waiting room, waiting for dp's ambulance. I'm thinking/hoping that it's probably hydrocephalus, which should be repairable with a magnet -- adjust her shunt valve, and that's that... I hope.
St. Luke's has officially discharged her, I guess -- the nurse said they had packed up all her stuff and sent it along on the ambulance.
Time passes...
Sitting in the ER now -- we've been here for a couple hours, while they took labs and x-rays. The neurologist on call says that they don't see anything wrong with her shunt. He's thinking possibly the UTI and/or some of the meds she's on could have been messing with her.
dp was surprised to hear that St. Luke's was worried about her cognitive skills -- they didn't talk to her at all, until they told her they were loading her up on the ambulance. She was a little disoriented about the time of day, but seemed otherwise on top of things.
More time passes...
Here we are, back on 6JCW. The food is better here than UIHC, so dp's chowing down on fish, cheese sticks, a chocolate shake and a banana. They've stopped the new muscle relaxant (skelaxin) St. Luke's gave her, as well as one of the anti-emetics we've been doing for quite a while, and maybe a couple of others. He tripled the antibiotic to go after the UTI. They'll monitor for a couple days, and we'll see what happens next.
There is an advantage to being VRE-colonized -- we get a single room, which is way better than the double (Not any more plush, just quieter).
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Another Sunday at St. Lukes
As usual, we're playing a game of 'two steps forward, one step back.' Thursday, dp showed a fever in the morning. Tylenol knocked it right down, so they really didn't get around to diagnosing the UTI (that's Urinary Tract Infection, for those of you who don't hang around hospitals or Marie) until yesterday. She's on antibiotics for that. This morning, she was pretty sleepy and some of the numbness was back in her right side, so we went downstairs for a head CT. I haven't heard back on that yet, but I imagine I'll hear something before I'm ready to post this.
Yesterday, Sam and JR came over, and we spent a couple hours cleaning, dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. It looks much better now, although we did transfer a few piles to the dining room and the garage. Still, it's definite progress, and a good time was had by all.
Marie seemed in good spirits this morning. Janet is planning on making ham and sweet potatoes, so they'll have a pretty traditional meal. Lauren is going to take over as her primary doctor, so I can just talk to her doctor again, instead of talking to her RN, who talks to the NP, who talks to the MD.
Okay, they say the CT didn't show anything abnormal, but she does seem to be showing some of the hyrocephalus symptoms -- there's some right side numbness, and she's seeing double again. I guess we'll take it up with Dr. D tomorrow...
A Happy First-Sunday-After-The-First-Full-Moon-After-The-Vernal-Equinox to you all.
Yesterday, Sam and JR came over, and we spent a couple hours cleaning, dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. It looks much better now, although we did transfer a few piles to the dining room and the garage. Still, it's definite progress, and a good time was had by all.
Marie seemed in good spirits this morning. Janet is planning on making ham and sweet potatoes, so they'll have a pretty traditional meal. Lauren is going to take over as her primary doctor, so I can just talk to her doctor again, instead of talking to her RN, who talks to the NP, who talks to the MD.
Okay, they say the CT didn't show anything abnormal, but she does seem to be showing some of the hyrocephalus symptoms -- there's some right side numbness, and she's seeing double again. I guess we'll take it up with Dr. D tomorrow...
A Happy First-Sunday-After-The-First-Full-Moon-After-The-Vernal-Equinox to you all.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Moving Along
Marie's cultures came back -- she's got three different bacteria colonizing, and two of them are treatable with the Cipro they're using. We'll keep an eye on the third one, and see what happens. Apparently, she'll always be 'colonized,' so the trick is keep the numbers down to a level her immune system can handle. I don't understand this as well as I should, but I'm sure we'll learn more.
Marie's doctor sent down word that the foley catheter can make matters worse, but we don't like the option of straight-cathing her four times a day either. We talked to the nurse, who talked to the doctor, and they're referring us to urology to re-open the issue of a supra-pubic catheter. It means surgery to put it there, but weighing that against the ongoing issues of the other catheters, we think it makes sense. The nurse thought it was a great idea, so we'll see what the urologists say.
dp continues to work her butt off at St. Lukes. She's pretty sore, but we think that's all from muscles that had gotten used to not doing much. She's still on thick liquids, but they moved her off pureed foods today. Her meat loaf probably looked pretty much the same, but the green beans actually looked like green beans. She has an official discharge date of 3/28, so I guess I've got that long to get the downstairs cleaned up...
Trooley is allowed up in the room, so I've been bringing him up for a short visit each day. The first day had him pretty freaked, but by today (his fourth visit), he seems to be getting the hang of the place. He sitting at my feet next to dp's bed as I write this.
Marie's doctor sent down word that the foley catheter can make matters worse, but we don't like the option of straight-cathing her four times a day either. We talked to the nurse, who talked to the doctor, and they're referring us to urology to re-open the issue of a supra-pubic catheter. It means surgery to put it there, but weighing that against the ongoing issues of the other catheters, we think it makes sense. The nurse thought it was a great idea, so we'll see what the urologists say.
dp continues to work her butt off at St. Lukes. She's pretty sore, but we think that's all from muscles that had gotten used to not doing much. She's still on thick liquids, but they moved her off pureed foods today. Her meat loaf probably looked pretty much the same, but the green beans actually looked like green beans. She has an official discharge date of 3/28, so I guess I've got that long to get the downstairs cleaned up...
Trooley is allowed up in the room, so I've been bringing him up for a short visit each day. The first day had him pretty freaked, but by today (his fourth visit), he seems to be getting the hang of the place. He sitting at my feet next to dp's bed as I write this.
Monday, March 17, 2008
So Far, So Good...
..that's what dp said when I asked her how the first morning went. According to her schedule, I missed ADL (activities of daily living -- aka 'getting dressed'), Rec, occupational therapy and physical therapy. I got here in time to watch speech therapy, more occupational therapy, and more physical therapy. By the time that was done, dp was pooped, and she's napping now while we wait for the food trays.
Food is kind of a pain right now -- she still on thick liquids and pureed foods. The Speech therapist kept saying 'very good' when dp did all of her tests, but marked her down as requiring 'supervised eating' along with the 'thick liquids' and 'pureed foods.' She also requires them to grind up her pills, which we spent the better part of the weekend getting them to stop. Personally, I think she resents the pun dp ran over her head, to the amusement of the student trainee and myself.
Everybody seems pretty pleased with dp's baseline. She walked again with a walker (75 feet at one crack -- the 140 last week was done in three installments), did four stairs this morning, and stood alone to practice balance.
The occupational therapist told her that her left hand is stronger than her right hand. In the next session, the physical therapist told her that her right leg is stronger than her left leg. Go figure... She does have a tendency to lean to the left, and her right eye is droopier than the other.
Meanwhile, the blog was year old yesterday. With this post, I've posted more in March than in January and February combined. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll note it for your collective interpretation. With any luck, we'll make blogging part of dp's activities of daily living, and then it'll be blog therapy...
dp says: "The rooms are nice. Wish you were here!"
Food is kind of a pain right now -- she still on thick liquids and pureed foods. The Speech therapist kept saying 'very good' when dp did all of her tests, but marked her down as requiring 'supervised eating' along with the 'thick liquids' and 'pureed foods.' She also requires them to grind up her pills, which we spent the better part of the weekend getting them to stop. Personally, I think she resents the pun dp ran over her head, to the amusement of the student trainee and myself.
Everybody seems pretty pleased with dp's baseline. She walked again with a walker (75 feet at one crack -- the 140 last week was done in three installments), did four stairs this morning, and stood alone to practice balance.
The occupational therapist told her that her left hand is stronger than her right hand. In the next session, the physical therapist told her that her right leg is stronger than her left leg. Go figure... She does have a tendency to lean to the left, and her right eye is droopier than the other.
Meanwhile, the blog was year old yesterday. With this post, I've posted more in March than in January and February combined. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll note it for your collective interpretation. With any luck, we'll make blogging part of dp's activities of daily living, and then it'll be blog therapy...
dp says: "The rooms are nice. Wish you were here!"
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The New Digs
I got back to the U a little before 9 this morning. We waited for bloodwork and miscellaneous paperwork, and then I loaded dp into the Baja, and we headed north.
Met the charge nurse, the doctor (Dr. D - we haven't had one of those, right?), a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm not sure why the U did the superbug test, because St. Luke's ordered their own, and we're tentatively quarantined until they return. That means there's a big bag of infection control gowns hanging on her room, and staff is supposed to don those before entering the room.
The physical therapist did some basic assesement -- testing for sensation, strength and balance, and everybody asked what our goals were. We got Diana into bed about 2:30, I think, and she was sawing logs 10 minutes later.
The room is pretty nice -- this whole floor was just remodeled last summer, so everything is pretty new. It's a single room, mostly basic hospital issue. The remote that has the call light and the TV controls also controls the room lights and the curtain, so Diana has a little more control over her environment. There's a not-too-large dining room a couple doors over, and a big honking gym, complete with a mockup kitchen, mockup porch, mockup grocery store and a real car, so you can practice getting into and out of it.
There is a phone -- it's long distance from CR to IC, but tomorrow, I'll bring her cell, so we can talk as much as we want.
They make it sound like the program is pretty intensive -- physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy morning and afternoon, but Saturday afternoons and Sunday are pretty quiet. Visitors are welcome to hang out and observe therapy sessions during the day, but if you want to come and chat, it sounds like you should wait for evenings and weekends.
Take care, and beware the ideas of March... ;)
Met the charge nurse, the doctor (Dr. D - we haven't had one of those, right?), a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm not sure why the U did the superbug test, because St. Luke's ordered their own, and we're tentatively quarantined until they return. That means there's a big bag of infection control gowns hanging on her room, and staff is supposed to don those before entering the room.
The physical therapist did some basic assesement -- testing for sensation, strength and balance, and everybody asked what our goals were. We got Diana into bed about 2:30, I think, and she was sawing logs 10 minutes later.
The room is pretty nice -- this whole floor was just remodeled last summer, so everything is pretty new. It's a single room, mostly basic hospital issue. The remote that has the call light and the TV controls also controls the room lights and the curtain, so Diana has a little more control over her environment. There's a not-too-large dining room a couple doors over, and a big honking gym, complete with a mockup kitchen, mockup porch, mockup grocery store and a real car, so you can practice getting into and out of it.
There is a phone -- it's long distance from CR to IC, but tomorrow, I'll bring her cell, so we can talk as much as we want.
They make it sound like the program is pretty intensive -- physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy morning and afternoon, but Saturday afternoons and Sunday are pretty quiet. Visitors are welcome to hang out and observe therapy sessions during the day, but if you want to come and chat, it sounds like you should wait for evenings and weekends.
Take care, and beware the ideas of March... ;)
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Next Next Step
Okay, 9 am tomorrow, we're outta here, and headed to Cedar Rapids (somewhat-affectionately known as 'The City of Five Smells') for some 'acute rehabilitation.' More on that as it develops.
We did the meeting with the social worker this morning, and an assessment/sales pitch with a St. Luke's woman this afternoon. Dede came over to give a massage at 1, and the PT came back around 3 to work her out (another 120-140 feet with a walker). For some reason, she's tired tonight...
We didn't do the cookie swallow test -- they decided that St Luke's would rather do that themselves. They did take two cultures for 'superbug' infections (St Luke's requires them), and apparently dp passed those tests.
Marie seemed quite chipper today, and everything at da Red House was back to normal this afternoon.
We did the meeting with the social worker this morning, and an assessment/sales pitch with a St. Luke's woman this afternoon. Dede came over to give a massage at 1, and the PT came back around 3 to work her out (another 120-140 feet with a walker). For some reason, she's tired tonight...
We didn't do the cookie swallow test -- they decided that St Luke's would rather do that themselves. They did take two cultures for 'superbug' infections (St Luke's requires them), and apparently dp passed those tests.
Marie seemed quite chipper today, and everything at da Red House was back to normal this afternoon.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Mother and Child Reunion
Okay, fine, nobody's worried about the missing urine. The conclusion on Marie is that she just has a urinary tract infection, so they're giving her a new antibiotic and sending her home.
First, though, they brought her up to sixth floor to visit Diana. They hung out bed to bed for about a half hour, and Marie and Connie left a few minutes ago.
Diana thanked Marie for coming, but suggested next time, she should just take the SEATS bus...
Thursday on the 6th floor
Shortly after I posted last night, the night nurse agreed that Diana was sleeping a lot more soundly than she had been the previous night, so she talked to a doctor, and we made the trip down to the third floor for a CT, just to make sure. dp slept through all the preparations (unhooking all of her leads from the room monitor and connecting her to a portable monitor, and 'hep-locking' her IV. Just as we were getting ready to pull the bed out of the room, she woke up, chipper and coherent. We did the CT anyway, but she was clearly on top of it.
I got in this morning in time to meet the physical therapist, who did a basic assessment of dp's abilities. Her strength is good, but her balance keeps pulling her to the left. She walked about 70 feet with two of us helping her to keep her balance (but no other assistance) and then 40 more with a walker.
This therapist is also recommending pretty strongly that we go for residential rehab in CR. She says that dp would get three hours of therapy a day, and that the whole program is set up to encourage her to do stuff for herself, as opposed to the hospital mentality (which I probably share somewhat) that the less she tries to do for herself, the less likely she is to hurt herself. We're still discussing it.
She's still on the thickened liquid (disphagia I) diet. We passed on the pureed seafood and pureed beefsteak, and opted for tomato soup, applesauce and pureed mac and cheese. The chocolate pudding was stock, and pretty tasty, according to dp. According to the social worker, the rehab people would teach her exercises to get her swallow back, too.
She still has an IV, but the leads and blood oxygen monitor came off just before lunch, after she finished her last bag of pottasium chloride. The plan is to spend most of the day her chair, sitting up for thirty minutes or so, and then reclining until she's rested. Right now, she dozing and listening to Barenaked Ladies on the iPod. Ah, domesticity...
Time passes, and yet he does not post.
Okay, it's 8pm now, and there's a new development. Marie is downstairs in the ER. Apparently, there's been no output from the catheter for two days now, and when the VNA nurse straight-cathed her, she got nothing. After I told dp, I went down to check on her (Connie came in with her), and she says she feels fine. The ER nurse was shrugging and saying they had flow, but they only got a little, so there's still a lot of liquid to be accounted for.
Somehow, we'll probably get mother and daughter to see one another, but that's the next task. For now, let's post the update.
I got in this morning in time to meet the physical therapist, who did a basic assessment of dp's abilities. Her strength is good, but her balance keeps pulling her to the left. She walked about 70 feet with two of us helping her to keep her balance (but no other assistance) and then 40 more with a walker.
This therapist is also recommending pretty strongly that we go for residential rehab in CR. She says that dp would get three hours of therapy a day, and that the whole program is set up to encourage her to do stuff for herself, as opposed to the hospital mentality (which I probably share somewhat) that the less she tries to do for herself, the less likely she is to hurt herself. We're still discussing it.
She's still on the thickened liquid (disphagia I) diet. We passed on the pureed seafood and pureed beefsteak, and opted for tomato soup, applesauce and pureed mac and cheese. The chocolate pudding was stock, and pretty tasty, according to dp. According to the social worker, the rehab people would teach her exercises to get her swallow back, too.
She still has an IV, but the leads and blood oxygen monitor came off just before lunch, after she finished her last bag of pottasium chloride. The plan is to spend most of the day her chair, sitting up for thirty minutes or so, and then reclining until she's rested. Right now, she dozing and listening to Barenaked Ladies on the iPod. Ah, domesticity...
Time passes, and yet he does not post.
Okay, it's 8pm now, and there's a new development. Marie is downstairs in the ER. Apparently, there's been no output from the catheter for two days now, and when the VNA nurse straight-cathed her, she got nothing. After I told dp, I went down to check on her (Connie came in with her), and she says she feels fine. The ER nurse was shrugging and saying they had flow, but they only got a little, so there's still a lot of liquid to be accounted for.
Somehow, we'll probably get mother and daughter to see one another, but that's the next task. For now, let's post the update.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
It's Wednesday, right?
I went home last night about 10 (only took one shot of the good scotch, Sam), and came back in a little before 9, I think. All in all, dp is feeling pretty good (and well!) There is some soreness, but she's not taking anti-emetics, and she feels her right side neuropathy is better already. She was dozing when I came in, but woke up shortly after. I talked to one of the residents (he kinda sounds like Tim D), and the plan was to get her up and see what she could do. It was sounding at that point like they might let her go tomorrow.
The nurse noticed that she was having trouble swallowing (that actually started last week, I think), so a speech and swallow therapist came in about the time she had lunch, watched and felt her swallowing, and restricted her to a thickened diet. You can pretty much have anything you want, but it's either pureed or thickened to the same consistency. There's a swallow CT series (she said they call it the 'cookie test') scheduled now for Friday, so I guess we'll be here until then.
Trooley and I went home for a frisbee/supper break, and got back here a little after 7. She's been sleeping *hard* since I got here, but with some shaking, she woke up long enough to say she wasn't hungry, and to pass the nurse's is-your-brain-still-working tests. Her vitals look good, and the day nurse says that dp was seen by and spoke to one of the staff doctors shortly before I got here, so I guess we'll write it up to catching up.
It was one year ago today that we first heard the word 'cancer.' A weird holiday, I guess, but it does mark the start of a lot of changes in a lot of our lives, so it seems like it's worth mentioning. Happy Cancer Day.
The nurse noticed that she was having trouble swallowing (that actually started last week, I think), so a speech and swallow therapist came in about the time she had lunch, watched and felt her swallowing, and restricted her to a thickened diet. You can pretty much have anything you want, but it's either pureed or thickened to the same consistency. There's a swallow CT series (she said they call it the 'cookie test') scheduled now for Friday, so I guess we'll be here until then.
Trooley and I went home for a frisbee/supper break, and got back here a little after 7. She's been sleeping *hard* since I got here, but with some shaking, she woke up long enough to say she wasn't hungry, and to pass the nurse's is-your-brain-still-working tests. Her vitals look good, and the day nurse says that dp was seen by and spoke to one of the staff doctors shortly before I got here, so I guess we'll write it up to catching up.
It was one year ago today that we first heard the word 'cancer.' A weird holiday, I guess, but it does mark the start of a lot of changes in a lot of our lives, so it seems like it's worth mentioning. Happy Cancer Day.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
6th Floor -- feels like home
Dr. R came up about 5:30, I think. Everything went as planned, and the big bump on the back of her head is gone already.
They took dp back down for another CT and chest x-ray to make sure the tube started and ended where it was supposed to, and then brought her back to 6JCEast, just one door down from where we got discharged.
Diana is still kind of out of it, but she looks and sounds a whole lot better than she did after the last surgery. With her scalp covered with betadyne and little magic marker lines, she kind of looks like Queequeg (I'm not telling -- if you don't know, look it up). She's already pretty alert, and we're looking through the 'clear liquid diet' menu (I'm guessing Italian ices again).
Anyway, so far, so good. Katie headed home when we heard that dp was out of surgery. I haven't looked at this trip's care package yet, but I did see a pineapple. (Katie mentioned that there was no rum..)
I'll blog again tomorrow morning.
dp says thanks to Katie and Seth.
They took dp back down for another CT and chest x-ray to make sure the tube started and ended where it was supposed to, and then brought her back to 6JCEast, just one door down from where we got discharged.
Diana is still kind of out of it, but she looks and sounds a whole lot better than she did after the last surgery. With her scalp covered with betadyne and little magic marker lines, she kind of looks like Queequeg (I'm not telling -- if you don't know, look it up). She's already pretty alert, and we're looking through the 'clear liquid diet' menu (I'm guessing Italian ices again).
Anyway, so far, so good. Katie headed home when we heard that dp was out of surgery. I haven't looked at this trip's care package yet, but I did see a pineapple. (Katie mentioned that there was no rum..)
I'll blog again tomorrow morning.
dp says thanks to Katie and Seth.
Day of Surgery Lounge again...
We got here at 8:30, so somebody from neurology could glue the feducials (little lifesaver like things) onto dp's head. That turns a regular CT to a 'stealth' CT (they don't look all that stealthy to me, but what do I know?).
Anyway, Katie met us in the CT waiting room, and the CT was finished about 11. From there we went to the fifth floor -pre-surgery and waited there until about 1:30. A stop to meet the gas passer (an RN!), and they wheeled dp off about 2 for what's scheduled to be a two hour and 20 minute surgery. Katie and I went an got some lunch (the burger grill was closed, so we have to settle for salads), and now we're sitting back in the Day of Surgery Lounge.
Diana was in a pretty good mood -- any healthcare worker careless enough to just ask if she had any questions was queried about who would win the Democratic Presidential nomination. Pretty soon, they were just asking if she had any more questions in regards to today's surgery. She also got to tell the nurse anesthetist her 'why woman have no spatial perception' joke.
I think we'll be going back to the sixth floor neurosurgery ward after this, but I'll let you know when I hear more.
Anyway, Katie met us in the CT waiting room, and the CT was finished about 11. From there we went to the fifth floor -pre-surgery and waited there until about 1:30. A stop to meet the gas passer (an RN!), and they wheeled dp off about 2 for what's scheduled to be a two hour and 20 minute surgery. Katie and I went an got some lunch (the burger grill was closed, so we have to settle for salads), and now we're sitting back in the Day of Surgery Lounge.
Diana was in a pretty good mood -- any healthcare worker careless enough to just ask if she had any questions was queried about who would win the Democratic Presidential nomination. Pretty soon, they were just asking if she had any more questions in regards to today's surgery. She also got to tell the nurse anesthetist her 'why woman have no spatial perception' joke.
I think we'll be going back to the sixth floor neurosurgery ward after this, but I'll let you know when I hear more.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Next Step
Got in to see Dr. R Friday morning. He agrees that the Diamox is not doing the trick, so we're now scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. Spent most of the rest of the day doing all the pre-surgery stuff, so we can go in outpatient on Tuesday morning. They'll do a head CT first, with the lifesavers glued to her head, and then we'll wait for the Dr. R to complete his first surgery of the day.
This will be a peritoneal shunt, which is a tube under the skin from the back of her head to her abdomen. It's two pretty small incisions (and another hole in the head), so the biggest trauma will be the general anesthetic. She'll probably be back on the sixth floor for two or three days after, and then back home again.
All in all, I think it's a good thing -- we've been kind of 'on hold' while we waited to see what the Diamox would do, and so something that offers genuine progress is kind of a relief.
Marie is weathering the winter just fine, and while she shares all our concern for dp, she is otherwise in pretty good spirits. Ambrosya has joined our family/staff/karass, and takes care of Marie in the mornings so Connie can continue her education.
Last Sunday, the tempurature made it into the fifties, so we got in the car, ran some errands, and went to Red Lobster for lunch. It was nice to enjoy the weather before everything froze again.
Stay warm.
This will be a peritoneal shunt, which is a tube under the skin from the back of her head to her abdomen. It's two pretty small incisions (and another hole in the head), so the biggest trauma will be the general anesthetic. She'll probably be back on the sixth floor for two or three days after, and then back home again.
All in all, I think it's a good thing -- we've been kind of 'on hold' while we waited to see what the Diamox would do, and so something that offers genuine progress is kind of a relief.
Marie is weathering the winter just fine, and while she shares all our concern for dp, she is otherwise in pretty good spirits. Ambrosya has joined our family/staff/karass, and takes care of Marie in the mornings so Connie can continue her education.
Last Sunday, the tempurature made it into the fifties, so we got in the car, ran some errands, and went to Red Lobster for lunch. It was nice to enjoy the weather before everything froze again.
Stay warm.
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