Waiting

First of all, I would like you to know how much I appreciate all the support and encouragement that I have been receiving from you. Your thoughtful comments, e-mails, Facebook messages, texts, phone-calls, prayers, thoughts, cyber-hugs, and positive energy are like a big, soft, fuzzy blanket, comforting and keeping me warm.

Izzy must have felt all the cyber love coming to her direction because she has stopped seizing. She only has these so-called epileptiform discharges that are sort of like sparks but not full-blown misfirings of the brain. We could start reducing the sedation, except the Bean has to stay intubated due to her pneumonia (they have to be able to suction the gook out) and the Versed is keeping her calm. Fortunately, they started her on antibiotics early on as a precaution, so the yuck is nicely clearing up.

Actually, they did reduce the sedative this morning but Beanie became so restless and agitated that she needed some paralytic to keep her safe and prevent her persistent self-extubation attempts. I told the doctors and nurses (and pretty much everybody besides the cleaning personnel) that I would rather have her on a higher dose of sedative and pain-killer to keep her as comfortable as possible, even if it means completely knocking her out. I mean, if I ever end up on a hospital bed with a big ol' tube sticking out of my mouth, while needles are poking my arms and electrodes are pushing on my scalp, I hope someone will make sure that I'm all drugged up and hanging out on la-la land with a bunch of skippy unicorns. As I said before, the doctors, nurses and therapists are wonderful at the hospital and in addition to taking exceptionally good care of the Bean, they also humor me and kindly put up with my meddling and pestering.

Our brilliant but decidedly nocturnal neurologist is going to look at the EEG tonight and decide whether the electrodes can come off of Izzy's head. An MRI is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I would think the electrodes have to come off before that anyway, unless they are planning on simulating a laser war.

The next step is to wean Beanie off the sedative and see if the seizures return or not. If the godforsaken seizures return, Izzybee will remain under sedation, if not, then she will be extubated and we will do our happy dance.

Also, we are making arrangements for the VNS surgery, but Izzy has to be discharged first and then re-admitted at the outpatient center. The hospital doesn't permit VNS inpatient surgeries, because they would have to eat the price of the implant, which costs probably the same as a liver or a heart on the black organ-market. The neurosurgeon is returning from his vacation next Tuesday and we are hoping that the operation room will be available and Izzy will be operable shortly after that. We are also hoping that Insurance will cover the exorbitant medical bills that we are incurring and we don't have to set up camp in the woods to save on rent. Speaking of which, after a couple days of hanging around in my sweats, I decided to switch from the homeless look to the presentable-mother-look before security took me away for loitering. You should really be proud of me, I even put on heels today, which usually helps people to notice me and not step on me.