I believe today is one of the best days for Mari in a while. It is a pretty uneventful day and that is what we are really hoping for as she does not need any more drama in her little life.
Faith and I come back to the hospital around 10am. Neurology has already come in by the time we make it there. They tell Keith that they want to do another CT scan tomorrow just to see how it has changed from her last one and also to check out the small bleeds they found in her brain from the MRI. They also want to repeat the MRI on Friday. I believe they want to do it then as that will be about 7 days from the time of her last serious injury. This will give them a good look as to the true extent of all her injuries in her brain. Sometime between now and Friday they also want another EEG performed as well. We are fine with all of that.
For the most part her stats seem to be pretty stable today. Her ICP (inter cranial pressure) seems to be getting higher and then staying in the 30s. This makes the neurosurgeons nervous so they want to have an immediate CT scan done instead of waiting until tomorrow morning. This is just as a precaution because no one wants what happened on Friday to happen again. So they immediately take her off of 24/7 dialysis and get her off to CT.
After they come back with her, the Attending comes in about an hour later to tell us what she thinks she saw. She says that her brain has been so injured the definition that would normally be there isn’t. There are two scenarios that the CT scan shows. The first one is that they have been draining way to much cerebral spinal fluid and the ICP is measuring the skull instead of the actual cranial pressure. The second one is that her brain is swelling again which is not good at all. I ask her what they would honestly do if it is swelling or if the small bleeds from before get bigger. She kind of hesitates at first but then says there is a procedure they really do not like to do but they can take off part of her skull until the brain quits swelling. However, she really feels it is the first one where they have just drained too much cerebral spinal fluid. She then looks over at the EVD, which is draining the cerebral spinal fluid from her brain, and notices that it has been changed from 10 to 20. She asks the nurse why it has been changed. The nurse says the neurosurgeon had called and told them to change it. She says this just confirms her assessment as the neurosurgeon also feels too much fluid has been being drained. We are all happy to hear that.
As I sit here, her heart rate is sitting about the 130s and her blood pressure is about 115/68. She is doing pretty good. In rounds this morning they decided to lower her respirations down to 15 and they have been there all day. We are happy with that. Her tongue is still very swollen but it is now pink and looks to be a little smaller I think. We are happy with where she is at tonight. It is a pretty calm night.
Keith heads over to the Ronald McDonald House around 8:30pm. Tonight should be a calm night.