Thursday, November 20th

Cindy a few years back

Hello Everyone,

After a generally lousy day, Cindy was feeling pretty good this evening. When I arrived at about 8:30 this morning, things hadn't changed much since last night.  She was still very lethargic, had an excruciating headache, and was nauseous.  She threw up within five minutes of my arrival.  The nurse was a little slow on the uptake and it took quite some time to get something to relieve her pain.  She went down for still another CAT scan at mid-morning and the neurosurgeon and his assistant came by at about 11:00.  Between the CAT scan results and examining Cindy, they concluded that they had opened the shunt too much yesterday and she wasn't retaining enough of the cerebrospinal fluid.  They said they would have to adjust the valve with the magnet again to slow the flow down.  The doctor added that it might take several tries to find just the right setting.  As soon as they finished the exam, I had to leave for Mt. Hood Community College to take care of some things concerning the adjunct teaching positions they gave me for the winter term.  (They really came through for me in a tough time...thanks MHCC Art Department!)

I dropped in again at about 3:00 on my way home to try to get some work done finishing up the kitchen and things hadn't changed.  Cindy was still in a great deal of pain, nauseous, and very uncomfortable. Her parents were there and informed me that the shunt had not been adjusted yet.  They were rather put out by the whole thing.  They couldn't understand why the doctors would let Cindy suffer so much pain for four hours when it would only take a few minutes to rectify the situation.  Point well taken, it seemed to me.

When I got back over to the hospital at about 7:00, she had been asleep but was just starting to come around.  I found the nurse and quizzed her on the status of things and was informed that the neurosurgeon's assistant had finally come by at about 4:00 to adjust the valve on the shunt.  (She had never seen it done and was quite impressed by the whole thing.)  When I got back to Cindy's room, she was awake and felt much better.  When asked, she told the nurse she had no headache or pain of any kind.  

Colleen and Ernie arrived between 7:30 and 8:00 with some chicken chili Colleen had made and Cindy ate a fair amount of it.  I think it was the first thing she had eaten all day.  Then, she got a phone call from some good friends and chatted for quite some time.  All of us in the room agreed she seemed very lucid during the conversation and much more talkative than she had been with us before the call. (We accused her of being bored with us because she's seen so much of us lately.)  After that, she was wide awake and talkative until we left around 9:00.  She really seemed to feel much better.

Your thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.  Let's hope the worst is over for her.