Surgery Cancelled

Krissy's pressure was 18 this morning.  That is the top end of normal.  They cancelled the surgery scheduled for this afternoon.  They will check the pressure again tomorrow and decide if they will send her home.

Change in Plans!!!!

The neurologist came in this afternoon about 4:00.  He has been conferring with the neurosurgeon and other doctors.  They proposed we put tomorrow's surgery on hold.  They want to try capping off Krissy's drain (that the nurse has been draining every hour since Friday) and checking how much pressure builds up by tomorrow.  If it is still in a safe range, they would like to cap it again after checking the pressure and check it again Thursday.  They are going to put her on a large dose of a diuretic.  If the pressure isn't too high Thursday when they check it, they will take the drain out of her back and send her home.  They want her to go to her ophthalmologist on Friday for another visual field test.  Then come back to St. Vincent's on Monday to check her pressure again with another lumbar puncture.  They feel that since this came on so fast, it might go away just as fast.  They want to try this before drilling a hole through her skull and putting a shunt in her brain.  We were in favor of that.  Please pray that the fluid will not build back up.

Upcoming Surgery

The neurosurgeon came in this morning.  He said Krissy would have a CT scan today and also a good shampoo in preparation for surgery tomorrow.  Surgery is scheduled for 3:00 EST.  He said they usually send the patient home the next day after surgery on her brain.  Totally amazes me!  He said the only restrictions she would have is not to lift more than 40 lbs. and no swimming for 2 weeks.  No problem!  Nathan drained the pool last week.

We appreciate everyone's kind words and prayer support.  This has been a very frustrating and difficult journey.  God is good all the time.  All the time, God is good.

Krissy is holding her own

Now that the lumbar drain is in place, they are draining fluid off once every hour.  It has relieved the pressure in Krissy's head, but she still has a little bit of a headache that can be controlled with pain meds.  They will keep draining the fluid every hour until she has surgery on Wednesday to put the shunt in place.  Please pray that there will be no infection in the lumbar drain up until surgery time and that the surgery will be a success.  The chance of infection when they put the shunt in is 5%.  The chance of failure of the shunt is 20-25%.

Food Failures

While we've been in the hospital, we haven't had very good luck with meals.  Before we headed down to the hospital on Wednesday, we ate a quick, light lunch at 11:00.  We spent so long waiting in ER that we still hadn't had anything to eat by 9:00 that night.  The nurse brought Krissy a box lunch that we split.  We each had 1/2 of a soggy turkey sandwich and 1/2 of a small bag of pretzels.  Krissy ate the applesauce.  By the time we got settled upstairs in her room, we were still starving.  The nurse brought us each our own box lunch about midnight.....so we got to eat a whole soggy turkey sandwich and a whole bag of pretzels.  

On Thursday, no one seemed to know what the plans were, so we were afraid to let Krissy eat in case they were going to do a procedure that would require her to be put under.  So we didn't eat any breakfast...just in case.  They finally decided that Krissy could eat, so we ordered lunch.  Krissy ordered a big, delicious cheese burger with all the trimmings, baked potato with butter and sour cream, and garden salad.  I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and french fries.  Krissy's meal was very good.  Mine, on the other hand, left a little to be desired.  The bottom piece of bread on the sandwich was all soggy and so were the fries.  Soggy fries with no salt are nasty!  For supper that night, I ordered Pizza Hut and Gary & Meagan stopped and picked that up for us.  That wasn't too bad.

On Friday morning, I called and ordered Krissy's breakfast.  I didn't want any breakfast because it was getting close enough to lunch time that I figured I'd just have a good lunch.  Krissy said I needed to eat something, so I ordered a blueberry muffin on her tray for myself.  Well, you can see how that turned out in the picture above.  When Krissy handed me that muffin off her tray, I just laughed and laughed and laughed.  It looked like a muffin top, not a muffin.  I was expecting one of those jumbo muffins.  Talk about disappointed! 

Well, I've got it covered for when I go back down to the hospital.  I've got Special K breakfast bars, Wheat Thins, Flipside pretzel/crackers, and some peanut M&Ms, among other things.  I won't starve this time!!

Update on Krissy

We saw the neurosurgeon this morning, and we really like him.  They are going to put a shunt in Krissy's brain next Wednesday.  They will have to shave a small patch of her beautiful hair and drill through her skull.  They will also have to make an incision in her abdomen to complete the drain down there.  Then the fluid will drain from around her brain into her abdominal cavity.  Until then, the fluid needs to be drained and kept down, so they are putting a temporary drain in her spine at this very minute.  This should make her more comfortable and keep the headaches away.  Then it's just a matter of sitting in the hospital, watching TV until surgery on Wednesday.  I know she'd appreciate a call or visit.  The direct number to her room is 317-338-0607.  She is in Room 5227 in St. Vincent's Hospital, Indianapolis.

Please pray for Krissy

I haven't posted anything on here in a few days because we've been at the hospital since Wednesday.  Krissy has had a constant migraine since September 15.  At first her vision was blurry at times.  For the past week, she has had large blind spots in her vision.  After many doctors visits and ER visits, we came to the ER at St. Vincent's Hospital in Indianapolis to try to get something done.  It's very frustrating to try to get help.

Krissy has Pseudotumor Cerebri.  In other words, a fake tumor in her brain.  She has a build-up of fluid around her brain pressing on her optic nerves.  Her optic nerves are extremely swollen causing the loss of vision.  They drained the fluid from her spine yesterday afternoon.  The measurement of pressure was 46.  The top end of normal is 18.  They expect the fluid to come back.  Krissy thinks it has because the headache is back.

The neurologist wants to place a shunt in her brain or her spine to drain the fluid because he feels her sight is at risk.  We are waiting for the neurosurgeon to come by and talk to us about that.  Obviously, we are worried and scared.  Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.