We're not Going Home

We were set to go home after being told repeatedly that her not using her arm was no big deal after telling the assistants to Kup and Brownlee, the nurses, and the doctors on the surgical ward.

Today Brownlee stopped by and said after looking at her and testing her left side v. right side that he wanted an echocardiogram before we left. They did that and then Kup dropped by. His assistant was telling him all about how Maya was and I said, "Yeah, but we still have this concern about her left side."

Once I do that, Brandy then lays it all out. She explains the symptoms and Kup says we need to get her to a neurologist asap, tonight, and starts putting it together because it appears she has had a stroke. We need to make sure it was just a TIA and not an active bleed so we will need to get her a CT scan. Kind of like a head X-ray in that you don't have to sedate her and all that.

A little later Brownlee shows up to tell us the echo looks good and catches me about 15 minutes from a meltdown because we've heard nothing about getting this stuff done since Kup left. He takes over and puts it back on track and the floor doctor jumps on it.

So, we take Maya back to the room and get her set to eat. Brandy is putting the ketchup next to the chicken nuggets when the floor doctor comes in and says, "Has she had a bite yet?"

The neurologist wants a special MRI (not a simple CT) of the brain so she will have to be anesthetized...so no food or drink again. We just took the last IV out today. We have been telling her we were leaving and now we can't.

It's all a little much right now as we were sort of going to coast home tonight on fumes having this behind us. I know life's not fair, but Maya doesn't yet and I don't want that lesson to be this hard this early.

Right now she has like a very limited paralysis that in the very extremities of her left hand and foot. It is almost certainly something that can be rehabbed out. We just need to do the MRI to see what damage has been done--if any--and make sure it is not continuing.

So, they have an anesthesia team that is coming in for another stat case and they will be putting her under again hopefully some time not too long after 8 pm. I really hope they can do it with gas only instead of the narcotics as the recovery is so much easier. Lots of crying and stuff, but less stomach problems.

I will post more when I know more.