Sunday, September 26, 2010

I was only with Leslie today for a few hours, so a lot of today's update is based on what other people saw. While I was there, she was quite alert. She didn't say any words, and she wasn't really tracking any of us with her eyes, but at least they were open.


I was hoping to catch some doctors while I was there, but unfortunately, none of them came in. Before I got there, she had gone down for a CT scan of her lungs to rule out a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). I was originally under the impression that they did this test because her oxygen saturation wasn't good (which was super discouraging because the previous days it had been excellent, but the nurse assured me that it was just another test to rule out another possibility of what MAY have caused the incident on Monday. During the test, however, Leslie wasn't real cooperative and didn't lay real still so the results were inconclusive. The pulmonologist decided to start a heparin drip on her (blood thinner that runs through her IV) just to be extra careful. He made this decision after consulting with her neurologist who, after seeing her brain CT scan determined that she does not have any bleeding on her brain.


The neurologist came in to see her, but this is after I had left. George said he was not going to do an MRI of her brain at this time, unless she starts to decline. She will have a repeat EEG tomorrow on her brain.


I'm not sure where we are as far as the cardiologist goes, but I do know he saw her today. This was before I got there.


From her families perspective, she is awake a lot more often today, and she has muttered a few words. She said "ok" when her nurses were positioning her and told her they were almost done. She said hi to one of her friends, and when George told her he'd scratch her back if she squeezed his hand, she did it. She also rolled over further when he started scratching.


The doctors said she is doing something called decorticate posturing. This is when a person with a brain injury brings both their hands in towards their chest, with their hands curled outward. She is doing this, but I'm not totally convinced it is decorticate posturing, because her left hand does this position often, before this even happened. I'm not sure if they are considering her cerebral palsy with this observation or not. Regardless, I don't feel too worried about it, mostly because I am just happy to see her moving her arms and hands now. She isn't in this position all the time.


Baby steps. Baby steps.

No comments: