A Lumbar Puncture and Antibiotics. . .

The Lumbar Puncture went off without a hitch.  It had a tinge of seriousness that was hard to deny, but a joke or two here and there lifted the mood of everyone working there.  Syd (short for Sydney), the neurosurgery PA, has been incredible in working with Brendan and explaining everything to us, and I smiled after she left and the sedation team commented among themselves how great she is to work with and how they are always glad to see it is her when they do a procedure.

Assembling the teams.

The sedation team going to work.

 Any woman who has had an epidural knows how this procedure works -- roll on your side, tuck your knees up and hold very still.

Getting Brendan into position.

They needed to collect about 20 ml of spinal fluid and that took several minutes to get that much a drop at a time.

Michael, our tech today, got to hold Brendan's legs to make sure he didn't move.  I'm not sure he could feel his own legs by the time the procedure was finished!

 It took about 2 hours for all of the sedation to get out of his system, but he is still sleeping now. I think the morphine helped the headache and he slept for the first time since yesterday afternoon.

Checking vitals and wrapping everything up.

Before we started today, Tony, the child-life expert, came to explain the procedure to Brendan and ask if he had any questions.  He had some good ones -- like, "How long will I feel loopy afterwards?" and "How long will it take?"

While Brendan was sleeping after the procedure-- and I  knew he wouldn't remember any of what went on (thanks to the versed), Sarah and I turned on the lights, and watched the end of a movie we had started last week. He didn't make a peep. (Of course, he still had the earplugs in that we put there when things got noisy during the lumbar puncture.)

Then my PCMC (Primary Children's Medical Center) and Paradise neighbor and friend, Kathy Thatcher, showed up with decorations for Brendan's room.  Her grandson, Brig (Aaron's son) is in for the week getting antibiotics and his lungs cleared out.  She had decorated his room, and brought some to share.   So Kathy and I hang out together here in my room late at night talking in whispers when the boys are supposed to be sleeping.

Results from the lumbar puncture came back with an elevated white blood count and something about glucose and proteins that indicated likelihood of a bacterial infection.  They will culture the spinal fluid for several days to see what grows.  They started one antibiotic right away then did blood work to check Brendan's liver function before they started the other antibiotic.

The new IV pumps that the nurses don't like as well as the old ones.  Brendan just hates all the beeping.

 These are the names of the antibiotics.  Pretty heavy duty stuff, I guess. They will continue to monitor his blood work and check the liver every few days.  We hope it works fast and he gets feeling better soon.

The neurosurgeon, of all people, spoke to me last week of the possibility of an infection with the spinal fluid.  Everyone was so concerned about the leaking, but he told me that it wasn't all bad if he did get an infection. Apparently, an infection can help everything seal in the brain and avoid future leaks.  He said they just watch carefully, and treat aggressively.  And that's just what they are doing. So maybe there's a silver lining in all of this after all.