As anticipated, Laurie has undergone a second procedure, that is, another brain operation. This took place on Tuesday, December 6th at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. They certainly did not fool around once she was admitted and properly diagnosed. Her surgery took a couple of hours. If you read back through the blog to the beginning, you pretty much know what took place then and it is essentially the same now, with one significant difference.
Right now, Laurie is not very responsive. For the last two days she has eaten virtually nothing and spoken only a few words. What words she very inaudibly said, were in response to her doctor or a nurse who spoke quite loudly. Getting her to drink water is a challenge. She shows very limited strength in her right arm and leg. Her vital signs appear to be alright, although there are some fluctuations taking place in temperature and blood pressure. She is on pain relievers, IV drips and pills or intravenous drugs to combat the swelling in her brain. She has a PICC line inserted to help minimize the taking of blood samples with new needles and the injection of some drugs. Her face is extremely swollen and red as it was last July after surgery. Ice once again helps to reduce the puffiness and hopefully provide comfort.
I spoke with her surgeon tonight. He feels that the CT scan taken yesterday looks alright. I spent about five minutes this morning with another doctor looking at the scans and listening to him explain the situation. It helps to be informed but this does not reduce my apprehension. There is some swelling in the brain that they are working on reducing using drugs. I think that the surgeon saw how distraught I was tonight and said that "it takes time". I can not help comparing the present to Laurie's first battle with the tumour. She seemed to cope better right after her first surgery as I recall seeing some progress almost each day. I do not see the same now but I need to remain as patient and calm and optimistic as I can. This has not been at all easy for Laurie and I wonder just how much she may be aware of what is taking place around her.
There are no plans that I know of to move her from the Neurological Observation Area. She is to get an MRI soon and that is all that I can pass along at this point. She has had visits from both the physiological staff and the speech therapist but I kindly asked them to return another day. My feeling is that these kinds of professional services may be a long way off still. I keep thinking that the doctor is right in that Laurie's improvement will just take more time. I have to believe in this.
I feel somewhat apologetic for such a brief summary but this is about I can write for now. Please believe along with me that Laurie will be better tomorrow and the day after that and the days and weeks to follow.
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