Last night and todaty have been filled with odd, off inccidendrdl Since I was in so right in the much pain last night the nurses let me take a shower just so I could sit there and try to relax and I ended up falling asleep for like 20mins, which ended up doing my body good but woke up when the nurse came in to check. Today, thurs I literally was falling asleep righgt in the middle of conversations or sittig on the side of the bed I came close to a few face plants due to basically falling asleep so suddenly and then staring myself awake of the nurse or aide would pass by and come gently shake me awake so I didnt in fact fall over. When my neurosurgeon and her NP came to reset the LP shunt reservoir to medium pressure from the low pressure I apparently fell asleep as soon as I laid across the bed. Or I would wake up and be confused where I was for a minute till I re-acclimated. Very strange day! Nausea and vision have been pretty
Nothing has been to exciting, just frustrating and feeling very badly, will try to update again soon.
Erica
5/03/12
So this was originally intended for at most a couple day re-cap but has now turned in to a 'tues to thurs' entry due to so much (and yet so little going on). I called the Neuro-surgery resident on-cal weds night and he gave me the option of either going to the local ER and beibf trasferred to UW, going to UW ER and be admitted or coming to Dr.Bragg's clinic in the morning. I chose coming to her clinic in the morning. So my Dad took me and once in Madison I called to verify it was ok. Turns out the Resident had never alerted Dr.Bragg or her team of our phone call and so they got me in at 10:30 plus Dad and I waited around in Madison. Dr.Bragg thinks the Shunt catheter which is
threaded up in to Thoracic spine (the mid-portion of ones spine connecting the cervical and lumbar regions) is likely part of the problem and may be irritating the dura, and CSF pressres not equalized between 2 shunts so while I have good headache relief and even good vision improvement it may be that we are draining to much, to fast. of the cerebral spinal fluid (fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, acts as a cushion). and the nerves are getting swollen or irritated. She isnt sure why the other discmfort in legs, hips (low back would be from surgery) but could be referred pain or from one part or another of the surgery as tjey seem to be fine.
Because there could be to much pressure draining, to fast could be affecting the dura (lining of the spinal cord) where the nerves branch off/lie we may need to re-program the LP shunt to a higher setting atleast for a while to allow body to 're-calibrate' and adjust to such drastic pressure chances between the VP and the LP shunt and in hope they in a sense work better together vs one shunt doing more pressure relief than another shunt. She on thurs (see above) adjusted the LP shunt back to a medium pressure to see if that is the problem, She opted to do a PCA pump for IV opioid (dilaudid to start and if needed will switch) + an anti-inflammatory and Valium which is often used in pain management to calm the nerve signals down. Dr.Bragg has already said we will play around with this till we can break the pain cycle and change out to other options for relief if needed/not working.
Her nurse, Lisa, talked to the floor nurse who is assigned to me today while they where preparing a room for me back up on the Neurosurgery floor and this happened to be a nurse ive had a few times in the past. When she called me to let me know what room I was going to be in she (Lisa) mentioned my nurses name and said the nurse had told her she'd had me a few times before. and Lisa told mme she (Sally) sounded really nice and that she was happy I was going to have a good nurse so she wouldnt have to worry about my care. I thought that was incrediby sweet!
I will re-update in a new entry when there is something new.
Thanks for keeping up with these rather long posts,
Erica
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