Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Checking In

Sal,
You've taken Hope for Daniel to whole new level; I love the long-term perspective and quotes. Thanks so much.

I just got back from the hospital and Daniel was opening his eyes and he now withdraws from pain tests in a more purposeful way. The nurses are careful to note that these are reflexive responses, but they are improvements nonetheless. There are lots of tests and documentation to monitor and maintain Daniel's condition. Daniel has a nurse all to himself all of the time. The SICU has more than a dozen patients, and the normal ratio is 1 nurse for every 2 patients.

This evening, Doctor Tantuwaya removed the ventricular drain (the ventriculostomy was Daniels first operation) from the top of Daniels head; it is no longer needed as the shunt now drains the cerebral spinal fluid to keep the pressure in Daniels head consistent. Daniel has a PICC line--a catheter that goes all the way to his heart--that delivers fluids and meds. He has another "J" tube that goes to his small intestine where nutrition is absorbed. These are both long-term solutions as opposed the I.V. that needs to be changed every four days.

I apologize if some of this information seems redundant, but sometimes we hear the info in new ways and our knowledge seems to be spiraling. The nurse tonight was using google images to explain some of the ideas...it was very useful. Also, you may want to visit http://www.biausa.org/ to learn more about the consequences of brain injury.

Thanks.

VV

2 comments:

  1. Victor,

    Both you and Sal are doing a great job on keeping everyone up to date on Daniel's condition! Gracias to both of you.

    Props to nurse Dawn and her crew, she is cool peeps and takes really good care of him, along with the other before mentioned nurses of course.

    I was with him early in the morning and got to see her go through the whole checking of his body. Sal's right, she first apologizes to Daniel then goes onto pinch the sh#t out of him, I told her he would not mind, in fact he would be grateful that she is taking good care of him.

    Daniel looks good, better than he has through this whole ordeal. He had his eyes wide open the whole time she was checking him and it was comforting to see that he does infact react to all of the stimulus.

    I realize we are only in our first couple of miles in this long marathon, but I know Daniel is up to the challenge and so are we.

    "At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love"

    -Ernesto "Che" Guevara


    Peace,

    Chuy

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  2. Not ridiculous at all Chuy....Your observations are right on! Thanks.

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