Day 26 Post-Op

Dr.Bragg  stopped by early this afternoon and wasnt the most awesome news but she spoke to the Rehab dr she works with on many of her spasticity/muscle/nerve issue patients and which she had told me about yesterday. He beleives it will likely take months for this area in my thoracic spine to heal from shunt catheter placement and nerve root irritation. She said he felt it was likely from blood getting in to the nerve roots due to the irritation of catheter placement in that space that caused these issues.  similar to the issues we had with last years lumbar spine nerve issues. The good thing is, is that we got the lumbar spine nerve issues to heal pretty well so this should also heal well minus the only difference is we do have the shunt catheter in  the nerve area for good and will never have enough CSF there,
She also said she was thinking more about the lidocaine drip and my history of cardiac issues and so had a consult with the  Cardiology dept  for the lidocaine infusion.The resident from there came by and then the doc came by and after an EKG and labs (labs where fine minus low potassium so they had me drink some aweful concoction) and the cardiology consult they gave the ok. It definitely was interesting seeing this Cardiologist - a regulat adult doc approach to my issues vs my Cardiologist who has the adult congenital approach and so looks at the entire picture and how different issues affect each other. Im sure this Cardiologist is very good as he seemed nice it was more just an 'I could help but notice' type encounter while he was doing his thing. ..

Earlier Weds night we tried the actual trial dose of the Lidocaine IV drip which was done over a 1/2 hour in which I was hooked up to a Holter type heart monitor and pulse ox, blood pressure, etc + my nurse and the neurosurgery resident where in my room the entire time the infusion ran. It went well and the only side effect was extreme drowsiness as the infusion wore on and so by the end I was a little woozy and dizzy so getting up to go to the bathroom was interesting but my nurse helped and when it was done I just laid down for about a 1/2 hr and then it was pretty fine. I do think while it ran it helped with the pain and I can see how it could help if it is given over a few days to give the nerves a chance to calm down and heal. Tomorrow they are planning to do the regular dose and I am unsure if over a few days on and off or continous.  We will see.
                                             Resident - Mike 2nd year Neurosurgery resident

                                                      Evey - Nurse

 Dr.Bragg and I also talked about starting  a longer term anti-inflammatory drug for nerve roots inflammation but are going to see on that till the lidocaine goes. Her  Plan is she still  feels we should try to break the pain cycle (doesnt mean get rid of it just calm it before going home) so that the nerves dont become so over-inflamed again and cause permanent damage.

I will update when or if there is anything new - hopefully one of these days it will be a 'Im getting out of here' note! :)

Erica