Sunday, December 10th

I’ve just come back from spending a few days with Kerrie and will try to do a decent update of everything that occured this weekend. I’ll apologize, in advance, for slaughtering any of the medical terms I will try to use. I don’t know how to spell them, and cannot even begin to guess on some of them, so will rely on phonetics. Those of you in the medical field will have to forgive me 🙂

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8th

Made it to the hospital around 2:00pm and hoped to spend some “quality” time with Kerrie… thought it would be possible, since she wouldn’t be worn out and sleeping.. but proved to be a hectic afternoon.

Minutes after I walked in she had a visit from the Psyciatric Department, while Psyc was there the Opthomology Department decided to pay a visit.. but since Kerrie was busy they said they would come back. Just as Psyc was leaving Occupational Therapy came in with Physical Therapy..and Opthomology returned a short time later. Then doctors and nurses coming in and out. I finally got to hang up my coat and sit down with Kerrie around 4:00pm

She was happy to see me, but this only lasted as short while, as I attempted to get her to stop eating ice and put her mask on. A little temper tantrum ensued ( because I am very good at playing the enforcer)… but she eventually put the darn mask on and let me take away the ice. She was throwing such a fit about the ice and mask that one of the nurses actually asked me if I planned to stay the night… It appears Kerrie is a perfect angel when I am not there and this personality change only seems to occur when I am there ( to enforce the ice/mask rule 🙂 ) Don’t get me wrong.. they enforce it, but I am a big, mean, older sister who goes to the extreme in following the rules!

When the nurse asked if I was going to stay the night I asked Kerrie if she wanted me to… she said yes, but no. Yes she wanted me to stay.. but she didn’t because I wouldn’t let her have ice 🙂 I stayed!

As Mom said, she was taken for an MRI late Friday night.. it was kind of cute when they came to take her. I was sleeping on the fold out chair/bed next to her and I heard her say “Honey.. wake up.. wake up Honey.” When I told her I was awake she said “Jenny, will you please go with me?” She was scared, because she didn’t remember having other MRI’s and didn’t know what it was. Once we told her what it was she rememberd, realized I couldn’t go with her, and said I should stay in the room and sleep. When she came back, around 1:30am, we had a cup of ice and went back to bed.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9th

Saturday was a decent day, with no ice arguments, and Ron was even finally able to make it to the hospital to see Kerrie ( He hasn’t seen her since before her surgery, because both of his kids have had the flue)… but when Mom mentioned to her that I was going to go home she started crying. I had intended to only stay the one night and go home on Saturday ( I haven’t had a day at home since July and REALLY need to clean the house).. but it was breaking my heart to leave and when she started crying and begging me not to leave I just couldn’t go.. very glad I stayed!

Around 8:00pm she told mom she wanted to wash her face, because her left eye hurt. Mom checked her eye, Kerrie said she couldn’t see anything out of it, but that it hurt underneath the corner of her eye ( This is the eye where she has lost the vision and they eyelid does not open). We didn’t really think anything of it, other than maybe she was getting sensation back in her eye area and I walked Mom downstairs to her car.

When I came back up to the room, Kerrie was sitting up in bed and was trying to pull something out of the back of her throat. I asked if she wanted me to suction her out and she said she did, but then started having very small, dry heaves. She felt sick to her stomache and kept heaving, but nothing was coming out. I thought maybe we had fed her too much, but so much time had passed since she had eaten that this couldn’t really be it.

She kept grabbing for her humidifier mask and trying to get air, saying she couldn’t breath very well. Then she said she couldn’t see anything out of her right eye, but when I asked her to read the signs that were on the wall accross from her she read them perfectly. Then she started getting worried, because she didn’t think she had a name ( or number) and said her whole left side of her face hurt. At this point I started calling Mom. We weren’t able to reach her right then and even I was starting to get a little scared. She said she felt strange and had to leave soon.. That was not something I wanted to hear again… The nurse gave her something for nausea and some tylenol and she said her she didn’t feel sick anymore and her face didn’t hurt. Finally got ahold of Mom, and she talked to the nurse.. but by this time Kerrie was sleeping peacefully. After talking with Mom the nurse agreed to check her regularly and if she started complaining of pain again we would get a doctor to check her immediately. They woke her throughout the night, checked her eyes and asked about her pain. She didn’t tell us she was in pain again until around 5:00am.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10th

The BMT doctors came in to see Kerrie this morning and she was still complaining of pain in the left side of her face and in the glands on both sides of her throat. They’ve upped the amount of dilauded she’s getting through her pain med pump and are going to consult with Neurology. The results of the MRI are in…but the doctor said he had to discuss the results with Neurology. He didn’t understand much of what they had written, as it’s in “Nuerology speak”, but could tell me there seems to be some change in another area of the brain. He and Dr. Jana intend to consult with them, but this probably won’t occur until Monday. Shortly after the BMT doctor told me this I called Mom and had to head back to Ohio.

I’ve just gotten off the phone with Mom and she said she spoke with the doctors… and here’s where the phonetics come into play.. The MRI shows she has swelling or an Askeemia ( phonetic spelling) around the Hypothalamus ( phonetic spelling) area of the brain… this is different from the area where she had her surgery and is centered around the area that controls speech. the Resident Nuerologist is coming to see her today and the head Nuerologist will see her when he comes in on Monday. I, ofcourse, have come home today with plans to work the whole week. I made it through an entire week of work, last week, and was going to give it another shot this week. We’ll see what happens.

Although this is centered around the area that controls speech, Kerrie’s is speaking very well. I have noticed it’s harder for her to get the words out just after she wakes up.. and she was a little harder to understand this morning ( but I am just realizing this now.. as I sit here… didn’t think much of it earlier today).

The biggest change I noticed in Kerrie, this weekend, is how she gets her point accross when she isn’t sure what the words are. No matter what it is she’s trying to say, if she’s not sure of the words she repeats the last thing she heard said on the Television. This morning she wanted me to open the blinds in her room and she just kept point at the window saying “How the Grinch Stole Christmas. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” An ad for the cartoon had just been on TV. Last night, she wanted me to straighten out her right leg and she just kept pointing at it and saying “totally free checking” over and over again. If you don’t understand what she wants right away she will repeat it over and over, faster and faster, like she’s frantic.. until you figure out what she wants. This whole development is something new and we will just have to wait and see where it goes. I keep waiting for the last thing she sees on TV to be some commercial for Erectile Disfunction or “Head On” something like that. Even though the situtation is not funny, I’m not sure I would be able to stop the laughter if she said somthing like “if you’ve had an erection for 4 hours call your doctor” when she’s trying to ask me to turn out the light… and I’m sure the last thing any of us wants to hear is “Head On.. apply directly to the forehead” over and over and over again..

On a good note.. Kerrie is able to move her right leg on command! If you ask her to move it she’ll say she can’t.. but then she’ll straighten out her leg a little and move her foot. She was able to do it several times yesterday and two times this morning. This was very good news for everyone this weekend!

Later, tonight, I will be posting some pictures of Kerrie in the Gallery. It may take me a day or two to get them on here.. but I want to warn everyone before I post them.. some of them are not pretty. If you would prefer not to see how Kerrie looks right now then perhaps it would be better if you didn’t look at the pictures. Keep one thing in mind.. she looks great compared to how she looked a few weeks ago, during her first trip to ICU.

Once I have more info on what Nuerology had to say I will be sure to let everyone know.

Jenn