One year ago...

Cut and Pasted from caringbridge:

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010 12:59 AM, CDT

We made it to Comer and are currently on the 6th floor. We saw Gen Peds, Peds Surgery and Neurosurgery. Everyone has assessed Lyns and she is NPO. Shunt X-rays are done, Shunt tap is done and bloodwork is done. NS has spoken with the attending on call, but he is not overly familiar with Lyns and the thought it would be best to touch base with Dr. Frim. I am very comfortable as one of my favorite residents is on call toni

ght and is

making sure that things happen. There have been some discussions on how it would be best to proceed with Lyns but we have to wait for lab work to return. When they tapped her shunt Lyns has no measureable pressure per Nassir...."Very low pressure". Nassir had to disconnect the manometer and use a syringe to pull some fluid out of her reservoir. He was able to pull fluid...but it never would flow willingly. I have been informed by neurosurgery that we will be moving to Comer 5 tomorrow. Neurosurgery is going to manage her case. I will say that I have received exceptional care on Comer 6. :) We have a kick butt awesome nurse. I know that I am forgetting something...But I am too tired to think straight. Love to all, Michelle

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010 4:03 AM, CDT

Good Morning All! At 3:20am Nassir woke me from my much ne

eded rest and my wonderful sweet dreams to inform me that Lindsay was being moved to the PICU. His exact words were more like, "Mrs. Hartman. Good morning. She has bacteria in her CSF." Nassir m

ust have known in the pit of his stomach that something was going on because when he did her shunt tap late last night he chose to shave a section of hair over her reservoir "So there is no question that this is not a contaminated specimen". So as I said, we are being moved to the PICU. When we arrive there they are going to sedate her and pull the abdominal drainage tubing and I assume that they will drain her CSF that way. Nassir said that the rest of the shunt will need to come out and he is not able to pull it in the PICU at bedside, but that we can deal with later in the AM. Right now we need to get her moved and get meds

(ANTIBIOTICS) started. They ideally want to give her Vanco and Rocephin. But if you remember back to February that made her "itch like a dog with fleas" and break out into a rash. So we are trying Ancef (we were on that at home and still itched) and Clindamycin (which she has reacted to the oral meds but we are going to give it a try for now). The PICU fellow has been informed what is going on and I find myself hoping that it is Dr. Dawson. I had issues with her in the past however t

hat was addressed and she is VERY smart. I know that Lindsay will be in good hands if Dr. Dawson is the fellow. (I know Janet.... You probably just fell off your chair.... Now Super D can laugh at you...LOL) Frim is on Holiday until the 12th. They did

speak to him by phone last night. Infectious disease has already been consulted re: meds and I believe that they have already been changed from the ones I wrote above. We are getting ready to move to the PICU. I will update later. Please pray for my little girl!!! Love, Michelle

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010 7:45 PM, CDT

It has been a very long day. Lyns was moved to the PICU by 5am. By 6am Nassir was here and ready to remove the shunt tubing from her abdomen and chest and c

onnect it to an external drain. This drained fluid out of her head and into a bad hanging on an IV pole. I even stayed and watched most of what they did. She was completely sedated and she tolerated the procedure well. Peds surgery came and reassessed her and wanted another ultrasound of her abdomen to make sure that she was not having appendicitis also. Lyns abdominal pain came from the infected CSF draining into her abdomen. Her entire peritoneal caviety is inflammed due to it. (aka peritonitis) This is why they h

ad to remove the abdominal drainage tubing asap this morning before any other inflammation could be done. On Lyns CT at our local hospital they thought she had a bad UTI because her bladder was inflamed (they could see this on the CT) Now we know it was due to her infected CSF. By 11am to

day Lyns was taken to the OR to have the rest of her shunt hardware/tubing removed. Unfortunately as I have stated in a previous entry Dr. Frim is on holiday. This did not bode well for Lyns as she had to have one of the other peds neurosurgeon operate on her. She was NOT happy. The Neurosurgeon did not want a drain placed to drain off her CSF since she had so much grown in her CSF and he wanted to make sure that they were able to get this infection straight away. While they were in the OR they placed a PICC line. Yes...we will be goi

ng home on IV antibiotics and NO we are not even talking a date yet. Lyns was out of surgery around 2 and back to the room. She is really uncomfortable and she is getting a boat load of morphine. The head pain and vomiting are crazy and she said her head is going to explode. So now we just hang tight and focus on getting Lyns healthy. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. We do appreciate them. Love to all, Michelle

It is so very amazing what a difference a year can make-March 29, 2010...

March 13, 2011