An Idle Mind is the Devil's Workshop

Lots of impromptu meetings today.

Dr. Delugos stopped by. He noted that everything looks good and asked me if she had any seizures. I said no, but did tell him about something that I discussed with Dr. Mike this morning. Last night when they paused the MRI to inject the contrast dye into Lauren's catheter, Lauren said she felt like she was going to have a seizure, only on the right side this time. This scared me a little bit as epileptics frequently have "auras" before a seizure. Of course, I told her that that was highly unlikely, that she was just tired and that everything would be OK. I then watched her like a hawk, and nothing happened. I did note to both doctors that I had seen her right hand twitch once and drop another time, but that I suspected they were pre-sleep twitches or fatigue. They both agreed with me.

Dr. Delugos said that they would continue Lauren on all her anti-seizure medicines for at least 3 months then start weaning her off one, then another, until she gets down to one medication. He said they would keep her on the one medication indefinitely. If we are lucky, some day we may be able to get her off all meds, but that is a wait and see possibility. Sounds good to me. We can live with one, effective medication.

The pain team was also here. They are moving ahead with Tylenol every 4 hours and Oxycontin as needed proceeded by Zofran (anti-nausea). She will be able to get "rescue doses" of morphine if needed, but they want to get her off the PCA, and eventually off the IV pole.

PT and OT will be visiting her separately, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This is the routine she will have in the rehabilitation hospital, so they are trying to get her used to it. It is also good to get her moving around, as much as she might hate it. It will get her blood flowing, maybe make her hungry and more in the "real world". They suspect the morphine, lack of food and lack of activity may all be contributing to her headaches.

Just spoke with the Physical Therapist. She said that Lauren was in too much pain to get up and move around, but that they did in bed exercises. She stretched out Lauren's calf and hamstring on the left leg, which she said was pretty tight and they practiced sitting up on the edge of the bed, which Lauren was able to do without a lot of assistance. She was a little shaky and expressed frustration on not being able to do things, but the PT explained to her that it would come, she just needed to retrain her muscles.

She's going to love this. The education specialist was in, she called Lauren's guidance counselor and they are moving ahead with schoolwork for her to do in the hospital. Of course, we were told that she had completed enough of her work to pass the 11th grade, even if she never returned this year. This will complete her coursework though and give her more purpose to her day.

Sara and Ellen are coming in this afternoon to work on her hair and Aunt Julie will be here this afternoon too until Sandra can get off work. In the small world department: Aimee and Amanda know Mike DiLuna from Yale.