Moving Day (Well.....Evening)

Nicole's mother 'reporting' again.....

Hopefully this image is not too terribly graphic for fellow bloggers. It passed the 'squeamish' Dad test, so we figured it would be alright to post. You can see why her pain extends down into the neck with the backward 'S' incision.

Dr. T, the head neurosurgeon, said she is able to leave the CCU tonight and go to either Floor 8 or 9 in the Meyer building at Hopkins.

Last night Nicole had an MRI which showed swelling (predictable) of particularly the cerebellum. The word 'infarct' was mentioned, which was concerning, but when we spoke this afternoon with Dr. T, he explained this better to Nicole and I. The tumor, being quite large, was taking up considerable space and compressing many areas such as the cerebellum. Now that the brain has more room, it is expanding back into areas formerly occupied by the tumor . He said the MRI Department will use the word 'infarct' with what they see from the portion of the cerebellum removed, but there was no stroke.

Dr. C from Dr. F's ENT group said she is doing well but will need PT and OT after discharge. He said they would evaluate her progress at 6 weeks but it may be 12 weeks before she's really able to do most things. She was given some 'homework' by the Vestibular PT Department (Yes, there is a specialty within Physical Therapy specifically dealing with Vestibular disorders). One of the tasks she had to try gave me a headache just reading the description! It involves looking at a small 'X" and then turning your head side to side as you keep your focus on the 'X'.

Nicole will need to keep her L eye covered for some time because of corneal drying (She's still not able to totally close that eye when the other one closes tight). They are using a circle of Vaseline around her eye and then a Saran wrap piece to cover it.... so she can semi-see out of that eye.

This morning Nicole was trying to walk a bit with assistance. She feels like her left foot is cooperating more but she's still unsteady. The 'walk' with her nurses really tired her out and she was feeling worse this afternoon - she admits she probably overdid it.

She's down to IV's just in her R hand and a pain level around 5. She ate a few mandarin oranges and drank a little milk for lunch - hopefully she'll feel more like dinner when Matt is there.

Seemed to be a lot of confusion over whether she had to stay in the CCU another night or not. The ENT group was saying she needed to stay another night. Dr. T. said she could be moved. (By the way, he was out earlier in the week from a kidney stone, not Nicole's case!)

Since Dr. T. is the 'head' surgeon, apparently what he says goes, so she'll be moving on!!!

My sister, (Nicole's aunt Cathy), will be coming in to stay with her this evening. Dr. T. said this would be fine. Cathy is a nurse at St. Agnes so she figures if she's given any grief about being there overnight, she'll go into 'private duty nurse' mode. Nicole is still feeling apprehensive so hopefully having Cathy there will help her rest and sleep.