Dear ones all!
The results are in: Kris will not need to have the shunt implanted. After inserting the lumbar drain into her lower back Monday afternoon and monitoring her since then, Dr. Teff decided this afternoon there was simply no marked change. He removed the drain tube but decided to keep her in ICU for another night. Had there been a major difference in her physical and mental state, implanting the shunt would have been a good thing. Since she evidently does not have excess spinal fluid, however, it just isn’t necessary to subject her to more surgery.
That having been said, we can move forward again with a plan. The plan includes having Kris return to Health South RIOSA for at least two weeks, possibly a little longer to rehab her and get her going physically again. Beyond that, she may still be admitted to the Audie Murphy Poly Trauma Center. We don’t have a date for that yet and there must be another evaluation meeting, but a decision is close. We are headed in the right direction anyway!
Several good things have come from the “testing.” First, just knowing there is no excess fluid brings a sigh of relief in itself. Second, a pharmaceutical doctor was called in on Monday to look at Kris’s list of medications she has been receiving. It is huge, far outdated, and simply had to be scrutinized. That has been done now and many of the unnecessary medications have been eliminated. This is something I’ve wanted to have done for some time, and we are so hopeful it will make a difference in her countenance and in physical and mental abilities.
Finally, Kris will return to RIOSA as an inpatient this Friday, which will change her therapy status back to what it was last winter when she was really on top of her game in rehabbing. She will have more therapy, some of the former therapists will work with her again (and that’s a plus!), and she may even be able to go back into the therapy swimming pool. Since she is an avid swimmer, Kris truly loved that last winter.
We are hopeful for so many reasons now. To have had the “overnight change” (had the shunt been inserted) would have been nothing short of a miracle, and I suppose we are a little disappointed. But God’s miracles come in His time and in His way, and sometimes they are little ones which add up to bigger ones. We are assured of that by His Word, and that’s good enough for all of us!
So... thank you all again for praying through. Your love and faithfulness on Kris’s behalf is such good medicine and, truly, just what the doctor ordered!!!
Blessings and love,
Carol and George
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LaVon DeRusha Baker
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