Change of Plans

Change of plans. The Infectious Disease doctors are concerned about the increased chance of the shunt getting infected after surgery. The neuro team and thorasic team are hoping to get me into the OR early in week to do a surgery to fix the leak instead. It will involve re-opening my thorasic incision and trying to follow the spinal fluid leaks path to the source which is probably at the front of the spinal chord. There they will blood patch and seal the heck out of it. Thank you for all your prayers.

Surgery Moved to Tomorrow

Hey everyone. Pray for me. Surgery has been moved from Tuesday to tomorrow. My back incision is looking fine, but my thorasic incision(12" angled under my left shoulder blade) has formed a blister and spinal fluid is leaking out of it. The surgeon wants to proceed with putting in the shunt to act as a continuous drain from the base of the spinal chord to my belly. They will also put in a fluid drain at the site where the fluid is collecting and forming the blister. After surgery they will allow this drain to continue draining fluid and hopefully it's output will go down(that means the shunt is working). If the the output does not go down they will have to do another surgery through my chest to fix the leak at the front of the spinal chord.The previous surgery fixed the leak they found at the back of the spinal chord, it's possible that there is a leak at the front now as well.
They have also found that one of the cultures taken from my last surgery has grown bacteria related to staff(unknown what type of staff it is at this point). They are treating me with antibiotics. Pray that God keeps me in good spirits. This has all been really frustrated and I just want this all to be over. We all do....
Pray it happens in the morning, I have to go without food and fluids from midnight(as usual for every surgery) tonight till whenever they decide to operate on me tomorrow. The sooner the better for my number 13 surgery. Thank you all for your prayers.

But wait thhere"s more...

Please pray for the the infection in my body,they are treating me with antibiotics and the possible infection I may have been susceptible to. Over time the lumbar drain had become contaminated by a bacteria. They removed the lumbar drain today and will monitor me closely over the next few days.

Update 5-21-11

Sorry for not posting for over a month. A lot has happened, 3 surgeries, a 3 1/2 week hospital stay, finally getting home for a week, then having to come back to the hospital from complications 9 days later. Let's start at the beginning. The first surgery for my "Equipment Overhaul" went well all things considered (meaning the end result was achieved). During the surgery there was a doctor whose only job was to continually send signals through my spinal chord to the rest of my body and make sure that everything answered back. After they got me on the operating table and started adjusting it for the surgery they lost signal to my left leg. The surgeons immediately had to go in and remove the compromised cage.  Upon removing the cage (Telescopic Plate Spacer “TPS”) I slowly regained signal back to my left leg. The top of the TPS had collapsed/twisted so far forward that the bottom of it had dug into the protective shell, derma, surrounding the spinal chord. The neurosurgeon, Dr. V later said that he was amazed I came walking in for the surgery that morning given my condition. The surgeons had to suture the derma in a couple places to stop the spinal fluid from continuously leaking out. They also removed the 1/2 bottom vertebrae that had become compromised from cancer and radiation. The new TPS was put in and they closed me up and kept me sedated and on the breathing tube overnight for the next surgery.The Second surgery was less bumpy. The rod was removed and 2 new longer rods were put in. The plastic surgeon then came in and relocated/stretched muscle in the area to help strengthen the back and closed the wound.
They waited a couple days to take me off the breathing tube and I started to recover. However complications arose from small leak(s) in my left lung that occurred during the process of the first surgery. In the process of moving that lung over to get to the cage site, some scar tissue around the lung was removed and a small tear occurred that started to allow air to escape from the lung and create a pnuemo thorax around the left lung which caused it to collapse. The doctors and nurses had to put me back on the breathing tube and soon found that I had a small bout of pneumonia. I ended up being on the breathing tube for a week while they treated with antibiotics. Because of the damage to the derma from the cage, the doctors had a Lombard drain that connected to the fenal sack at the base of my spinal column. This allowed them to drain spinal fluid controllably to help the damaged areas of the derma to heal. My left lung just would not heal so Dr. M took some omentem, some of the fat from my stomach to patch the hole. The Dr. also said it was good for fighting off bacteria and infection, so double bonus. Then it was just recovery time and I pleaded with Dr. V to let me out Saturday morning, and he felt I was OK and that I could. So I got to see my 2 nephews and 1 niece in the Philomont Horseshow. I had been in the hospital for 25 days.

I was home (at mom’s house) for a total of nine days I was using the bathroom (sorry for the detailJ) and when I got up and felt something wet on my back but could not see it myself. Becky, my best friend, was there and the physical therapist had just shown up. As soon as the therapist looked at my back she said “no therapy today, call the doctor”. So I did and we went to the ER at Georgetown as instructed, and we were told they would know we were coming but it still took a while. I thought I was coming just to fix the leak, but I am like those infomercials “but wait there’s more” In my blood work it showed that my kidneys were not functioning properly, and my creatinine levels were very high, they should be under one from what I understand and mine were over five. They are down to the threes now and dropping hopefully. They also did a kidney ultrasound to confirm. When I got here they also could not get a pic line so that was concerning, so they did an ultrasound and found blood clots in my neck. There was one vein or whatever they used yesterday to put in a “Hickman line” to help since they had been sticking me so much and were having trouble finding veins. They can’t do anything with my arms and shoulders because they don’t want to dislodge a clot into my lungs or anywhere else.
           
As of now I have my first surgery (#12)on Tuesday at two. Of course it will be later just cause that is how it normally is. That one is to patch the leak. Then they will watch me for I don’t know how long and then probably have lucky surgery13 to put in a shunt to drain any access fluid drains to my stomach.

Hopefully I will be back at moms soon. I am glad that I did not find the kidney thing myself because there could have been permanent damage, same with the clots.

Please pray my kidneys get better, the clots breakup with the heparin, and for my nausea. Yesterday was the first day I did not throw up but I mostly had “Nepro” a supplement drink, and I have a feeding tube from my nose down into my stomach which they run at night. My nutrition needs to be better for my wounds to heal.

Thanks for all the Love, and thoughts and prayers, they mean so much to us.
We just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on May 20th in the hospital, but oh well, we will do something later, when I am better