Up and Down and Upside Down

Today has been a day of up and down - literally.  We started the day with the goal of being up in the bed and then up in the chair.  After being up in the bed at 30 degrees, there was some drainage around the back incision.  So Vicki ended up like this:

You can see a smile on her face, but trust me, she's not always this happy about it.

In addition to being flat, Vicki has seen PT, a therapy dog, an infectious disease doctor, ATD (the chair people), Music Therapy and Rec Therapy.

PT said, that her hips may be "locked" at 65 degrees due to bone changes and not muscle issues.  She suggested we see the orthopedic doctor to get more information.

The therapy dog was a poodle and had been introduced to Hajik before.  They said "hi" again, then the poodle talked with Vicki for 3 minutes and left.

Infectious disease said that "one line" of a culture had grown something in her Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) when it was last taken.  One belief is that it was a contaminate in the lab.  There are no other signs of infection so it is the leading theory.  We need to have another check of the CSF in the near future.

ATD came up and adjusted the back of Vicki's chair by 10 degrees.  It's more open now.  Think reclining slightly.

Music Therapy kept Vicki entertained long enough for me to talk with another professional.

Rec Therapy brought some costume options for Vicki for tomorrow.  Guess what she chose to be? a) A princess?  b) A fairy? c) A witch? or d) A doctor?  Final answer?  d) a doctor.

I'm certain she will try to tell everyone what to do tomorrow when she becomes a doctor.  She already does that, but doesn't wear the lab coat.

The day has been full, but as I said, has been up and down.  We can not go home until she stops leaking.  So I told her to "dry up."

Right now, we are waiting for the surgeon to come in and give us an opinion about the leakage.

Epilogue:  We saw the surgeon. She determined that the fluid was indeed CSF and leaking.  That's not a good thing.  She said at one point, "Let me think about this."  She was considering surgery, or novocaine  and some additional stitches.  When she left the room to think, I was wondering to myself, "Do they ever use glue in a situation like this?"  She came back in and said, I'm going to use "Dermabond" - a glue.  That felt like a good confirmation to me.

The "Upsidedown" side to all of this is as follows:

She has to be in "reverse trendelenburg" position until at least tomorrow.  We could be looking at 3 more days of being flat.  She also has to hold off on a feeding for now so we don't add pressure.  She will be getting a medicine to slow the reproduction of spinal fluid.  The idea is that by "turning off the faucet" of the spinal fluid, there will be less pressure and hopefully not make it worse.  The surgeon's last words to us were, "It's not a big deal now. Let's keep it from becoming one."