Improvement this Morning

Annie's CT scan of her brain last night was unremarkable.  The radiologist had a difficult time reading the images because Annie's brain structure is already so abnormal because of her Aicardi Syndrome.  He didn't have any previous images to compare it to, but they said there didn't appear to be any swelling on her brain or other problems that they could see.

We were extremely concerned about her sodium levels last night as they rose to 157, and wanted to see that level drop, but if her sodium levels were to drop too quickly then she would have other serious complications.  So they continued giving her half normal saline IV fluids, calculating how long that would take to lower her sodium levels safely.

Annie started perking up a bit more around 11:30pm last night and later slept fairly well for a good portion of the night.  She finally started urinating and mobilizing all her fluids, so that was good news.  Early this morning when they came for their daily blood draw, Annie actually fussed with it and got so upset with the nurses trying to get a urine sample that she peed all over them!  I think our Annie is back!  Yesterday she never responded at all as they were poking her.  So we're feeling like her mental state is about back to normal. 

Her labs this morning were pretty good.  Her sodium has come down to 149, creatinine down just slightly at 0.78 but heading in the right direction, WBC at 20,000 which is great news, and hemoglobin at 7.1 which is very low but they suspect that's at least a little dissolutional (normal hemoglobin is over 12 and most doctors transfuse at 7).  

With her hemoglobin so low and her history of bleeding with these surgeries, this morning they tried to give Annie a blood transfusion before surgery with plans to give her another unit in the OR as well.  However, her IV went bad and they haven't been able to get a new one in her after 3 failed attempts.  So they are just waiting for the anesthesiologist to start the IV in the OR and they'll give her extra blood during her surgery.

Although Annie's oral vancomycin to prevent c-diff does not get absorbed in the blood, they are still holding off on that for a few days while her system continues to flush out her vancomycin overload.  The ID team did mention today that high vancomycin levels can cause retching and vomiting, so we're hoping that really is the cause of Annie's GI woes.  She has still been retching and gagging somewhat regularly although for much of this week she has been NPO.

So now Annie is resting.  We've had concerns about moving forward with surgery today given all her troubles yesterday and last night with her sodium levels, but so far everyone is planning on surgery unless the anesthesiologist says otherwise.  She still needs to come consult with us, but with Annie's sodium at 149, we get the sense that surgery will still happen today.  Annie is currently scheduled at 12:30 to get her central line placed so we can give her IV antibiotics for the next year, and then Dr. Hasley will do the irrigation and debridement of her back.

Annie got a cute teddy bear and valentines balloon from CVS this morning.  Justin and I have our valentines date all planned... lunch together at the hospital cafeteria while Annie is in the OR :) It doesn't sound like much, but since we haven't spent more than 30 minutes together a day, and all that time has been spent updating each other on Annie, I'm really looking forward to a small mental break. I'm grateful he made it back in town to be here for our scary night last night and now for her second surgery.  It was a little lonely waiting in the surgical waiting room for 5 1/2 hours by myself last week, but I'm grateful for technology that allowed me to stay connected with friends and family during that time.  I appreciate all those close friends and family who continue to check in on us!