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Update to "Gertrude is still..."

Dear Friends, Thank you for you interest and support.

The last two days have been more than a little nerve racking. For those that didn’t see my prior description of what my we have been going through I am providing a brief summary: In early April Gertrude came down with the shingles. It ended up that most of the irritation was internal involving her left leg. It was a little difficult to get a diagnosis. She was sent to the neurology facility to investigate the extreme neuralgia pain that persisted when other symptoms had disappeared. While being examined the attending asked a Neurosurgeon to take a look at her. The Neurosurgeon was not concerned about Gertrude’s leg symptoms, but noticed her eyes weren’t tracking correctly. Had she banged her head lately? She had taken a tumble and banged her head on a doorjamb in April, but didn’t even get a headache from it.

The Doctor scheduled a series of brain scans as well at MRI of the damaged leg. The brain scan revealed a subdural hematoma, likely caused by her fall. If it showed no increase in size surgery might be avoided, it still required monitoring on a two week basis. If it was shown to be increasing in size surgery would be indicated.

Over six weeks of monitoring by brain scans it appeared to be stable, which was good news. The brain scans are done locally with a follow up appointment with the Neurosurgeon later in the week. The DRs appointment is a little difficult as she is located an hour and a half inland, and is almost always delayed by an hour or so.

Back to last Monday, as usual we went to the local Newport hospital for the scan, easy peasy. We were leaving and almost to the parking lot when the technician came running after us and said the radiologist wanted to talk to us ASAP. The radiologist was very concerned and showed us the latest scan. The hematoma had increased by a third in size and fresh bleeding was clearly visible. We told her that we had an appointment with the Neurosurgeon scheduled for Wednesday. The radiologist said she would give the Neurology a heads-up phone call. Before we got home, about 20 minutes, there was a phone call from Neurology saying Gertrude’s appointment was now bumped up by 24 hours to Tuesday.

We let the family know that the bleed had restarted. I called Swedish Hospital Bloodless Surgery in Seattle (Blood Management is the official program name) Seattle to see if they could fit Gertrude’s potential surgery into this week if needed. I was informed it would not be a problem. Note: there are two closer hospitals that use bloodless procedures, OHU and Legacy both in Portland, but Gertrude had volunteered for many years with the program at Swedish, plus all our adult children live in the Seattle area.

There were phone calls and text messages flying back and forth all evening. We had a sleepless night hampered further by a medical emergency next door. Fire engines and emergency vehicles with their flashing lights and motors idling right beside our bedroom window. 3:30 AM was the end of sleep for the night.

It was my idea to throw a minimum of overnight things into a bag just incase we had to drive to Seattle after our up-scheduled visit to the Neurosurgeon. The blood issue had not been discussed specifically with her. They do have our ‘Advanced Medical Directives’ on file, but my experience is doctors seldom look that deep into our files and have to be reminded for any procedure.

After all the nerve racking, sleep defying previous 24 hours the doctor was a little ho-hum about the whole thing. “Yes, continued bleeding would require surgery, but lets continue monitoring.”  “Did you have a fall, or over exert yourself this last week?” Gertrude, “Yes I helped Jerry move a king size mattress Saturday.” Doctor: “That probably upped your blood pressure enough to restart the bleeding, I should have warned you not to do anything more strenuous than walking until this thing is cleared up.”  (Now she tells us!)

We are now back to square 1-1/2. Monitoring is now every week and I still need help to unload the old mattresses.

Thank you all for your concerns and prayers, who is to say that the prayers didn't work? Not me.

(Sorry this was so long.)

YB

Jerry