This is a CT scan of my daughter's brain. I took it with my camera phone after they were wheeling my daughter out of the room, thinking she would like to see it later.
This is what it looked like on the monitor.
If you had been in the room and looked up to the monitor, this is what you would have seen.
Or if you had been in the gadget room, one of the tech guys, this is one of the things you would have seen on the monitor on your gadgetotron.
If you had been walking past the room outside and if they had left the door open, you would have seen this.
This is what was there after they were done doing the scanning.
She was in the ER on the 26th, the 28th and again on the 30th, trying to manage a headache which began on Christmas Day. We didn't suggest a spinal tap because she wasn't feeling any pressure in her head which has always indicated an increase in fluid. We thought we were dealing with migraine clusters. In fact, when the doc who saw her the other night said we should try to see if there were increased pressure, we fought him. "She doesn't need a tap", we said.
"Well," he says, "Let's do a scan and see what we find first. I think we'll need to do the tap".
Long story short, they did a tap, but not because of the scan. They said it didn't show anything they could judge by. But we had tried everything else to help her and at the very least, a tap would rule OUT pressure, wouldn't it?
But she has been so poked and prodded that they had to sedate her before they could do it. So scared and unhappy and all I can do is sit there and tell her how ok it will be.
And the pressure was high, of course. 44 when it should be somewhere between fifteen and nineteen. So they drained it and she feels all better.
This part is good. The scary thing is that she suddenly needs a tap once every three to four weeks and we can't count anymore on feelings of pressure to differentiate between a migraine and intercranial hypertension.
So now we're talking shunts. This involves some form of brain surgery I am afraid to look into too closely at the moment. How do you say I am furious and scared shitless and have it come off as big as it really feels? There aren't words big enough for how huge it feels inside. There just aren't words.
Middle kid got little rubber spacers the other day. Little, blue rubber things that are designed to suggest to her teeth that they spread out enough to stick some kind of metal thing in between them which is necessary for braces.
I mean, ok. Little blue rubber things and she says they go 'boing' when she moves her jaw the right way.
My jaw goes 'shriek crack pop' when I move it the right way.
Braces happen very soon. Same day as daughter 1 sees the new neuro with whom we shall discuss surgical options.
