Thursday, July 3, 2008

Brain stuff

Just a quick update because I'm short on time this morning.

Robbie's head ultrasound was normal. YAY YAY YAY!

He had a pretty decent day yesterday overall. I'm not sure HE would agree, but I do. He managed to pull his NG tube out and had to have it put back. He didn't appreciate that very much AT ALL. Had a huge temper tantrum about it.

Then his vent tube wasn't in the right place so it had to be untaped and pushed further in. He wasn't so sure about that either, though the temper tantrum was way less than the NG tube temper tantrum. His nurse had her finger in his mouth when working on the vent tube and she said he was nursing it. So sad. One of these days he'll get to really nurse, though.

Anyway, the vent tube thing was discovered while we were Kangarooing and he kept dropping his sats really badly so finally they put him back to bed to fix it. So I only got to hold him for just over an hour. I almost cried when they put him back. An hour just isn't enough.

His trach aspirate was still negative yesterday, so that's 2/3 of the way to a true negative. I'm crossing my fingers for today.


I managed to get my hands on the radiologist's report from my CT scan. It sounds better than I had hoped, really.

Findings:
Ventricular system of the brain is midline without a shift, dilatation or mass effect. No intracranial hemoorhage is seen. There is localized prominance of the extra-axial CSF spaces at the level of the coronal suture. This is more prominent on the right than left. It may be developmental. Calvarium is intact. No abnormal enhancement is seen after contrast administration.

Impression:
Slight prominence of extra-axial CSF spaces as described above.
MR scan might be recommended to further evaluate these areas to exclude either an arachnoid cyst or a low-grade tumor such as a gangliocytoma.


I did a little google research last night and checked out the cyst & tumor possibilities and it sounds like both have good prognosis. Obviously, we'll hope it's developmental and is actually NOTHING, but even if it's something, it's not necessarily the end of the world. So that's something.

I'll be glad to get the MRI done and talk to the neurologist. Of course, we still have to figure out why I have the numb spot, too. And a really bad part of all of this is that when my head hurts, I'm SUPER paranoid. I've always been prone to headaches and such. And of course now.. I'm not eating or sleeping well. I cry about 20 times a day and I'm under a teensy amount of stress, so headaches are pretty par for course. But now I have to think "is it a headache? Or is it a headache?"

We're off to the urologist for David this morning. I don't expect any answers this morning, but hopefully he'll have some ideas and soon we'll know something.

Going to be a hectic day. Urology appointment in an hour, then off to see Robbie. Then my MRI is at 5:45p.
And at some point we have to get the house cleaned up and such becuase David had the bright idea to invite my MIL & BIL over for BBQ tomorrow. I don't know WHAT he was thinking. I was not consulted at all.
Me, personally, I'd tell them that they could come over but they were going to have to deal with a messy house. But David would freak out if his mom saw the house dirty. So he'll be going crazy tonight trying to get everything done.

And you know, I will be spending time with Robbie, and he gets priority. So we'll see how this day goes.

--Trish

5 comments:

Two Hands said...

Hmm. Some good news and some not-so-bad news. That's very encouraging. I'm floored that you're able to get on your computer and type ANYTHING coherent, let alone your articulate and heartfelt submissions. I doubt I'd be able to do it.
Thinking of you and your fam each and every day.

Elizabeth said...

Hoping all goes well at the doctors/mri today and that you have a good day with your little one. Robbie has a pretty fantastic mom you know. Everyday I am amazed at what you are faced with and still manage humor.

I want to believe the MIL would not care about the state of your house when you've got more important things to take care of too.

Sunny said...

WONDERFUL news about Robbie's u/s! Praying praying praying!

Tracy said...

Thinking about you!

I say screw the BBQ. Let them see a messy house. You have other priorities now. Maybe David just wanted to be "normal" for a bit and spend some time with family. That maybe what he needs to cope while you need to be knee deep googling medical info.

((hugs))

Hang in there.

Macchiatto said...

Glad it's mostly good/decent news this time. Whew. Praying things really level off soon and your stress level can go way down! Hugs.