The Price of Being Clumsy

 

Mommas had to kiss their kiddos today and send them back to school after the tragedy in Newtown CT. Despite this medical situation, I feel so fortunate to have my three happy and healthy kids.

As I faded out of anesthesia last Monday I was asking the nearest nurse if I still had a shunt in my head. I remember the air tube still in my throat and I was grumbling "Was it infected? Do I still have a shunt? Do I have the spinal drain?" Of course the nurse could not understand me (another Research Medical Center employee thinking I was a crazy broad), but she later answered me when I didn't have a tube stuffed down my throat. You may have noticed I am not a very patient person, so it seems suiting that I wouldn't wait for my air way to be clear before wanting answers.

Yes, the shunt was infected and Basta pulled the entire thing out of a head incision 4 inches long. The device looped from my head all the way down to the bottom part of my peritoneum (stomach lining), so I am a little stumped on how this extraction happened. Maybe a question for one of my follow-up appointments? Furthermore, I felt relieved when she said I DID NOT have a spinal drain. Not five minuets after awaking, a x-ray tech started a series of x-rays to assure that all parts of the shunt were out. If any part of the shunt was left, it would keep infecting my CSF. This is because the shunt is a foreign body that has no immune system, so it wouldn't have a way to heal. After the x-rays, Basta and his pretty NPs are in the post op bay talking at me. He was brief, as I am not sure I was fully conscience when he was talking to me. He just reiterated what the nurse had previously said, but said to send me to the ICU for the night. That statement caught my attention and I basically begged the god and goddesses to go into a normal room. I had spent 1 night in the ICU the previous December and I was unable to sleep and I was hooked up to so many machines I couldn't even switch sleeping sides without an alarm going off. I guess my luck ran out with not getting the spinal drain because I was headed to room 5 in the ICU.

Here I take a side note. My mom was allowed to come back to the post-op bay. Here, she talked with Basta and my new doc. Dr. Mcknezie from the Infectious Disease department. It was very nice having her back there with me. Where was Kyle, you might ask? Well he was taking the kids to their weekly swim lessons. Yes, his wife was coming out of exploratory brain surgery and he is toting the kids to a routine swim lesson. Don't judge him, judge me! I was insistent our kids' lives be uninterrupted by all this. So much so, I forced him to leave the hospital before I was out of surgery to get the kids to swim. This is just an example of how parents continually put their needs below their kid's needs. I was lucky and had my mom with me, but I have learned sometimes it is ok for a kid to miss a swim lesson when his/her mom needs her husband. But Mom was a champ!

I completely understand why Infectious Diseases had to take over my case. However, it seemed liked Basta and his beautiful ladies couldn't wait to get rid of me. I was the idiot who managed scrape her head EXACTLY where a scrape couldn't happen. Basta said I needed to buy a lottery ticket because the odds were in my favor( a bit ironic considering...). Now enters a new doctor, Dr, Mckenzie. He is extremely mild mannered with a quiet voice and a smile on his face. He seems to be accepting of my clumsy situation and gently tells me that the preliminary cultures are showing the bacterias of Strep and Staph. He is going to start me on a aggressive antibiotic called Vancomycin. Then as the bacteria has more time to grow on the cultures he will be better able to pinpoint the best antibiotic for my situation. OK, this infection is real and along with recovering from surgery my body is going to have fight off a serious invader. As they wheel me down to ICU (ugh), I wonder why Kyle just didn't let me run out of the hospital and drink those gin and tonics!