By Lisa Ansay —
Taylor spent the night in Barrow Neuro ICU last night.
He has had awesome days, and some confused days this week, and the confused days even alarmed Taylor himself. He had a very hard time remembering things, and for the past two days he did not know where he was. At all. Things like that.
This was a marked change from the previous days where he was speaking in sentences, and could answer anything you asked him, whether it was math, memory, or something random such as answering questions, without choices, but where he had to to generate his own original response.
Example: “If you could have any meal in the whole-wide-world, what would you choose?”
“Orange chicken,” he replied Monday without delay.
But then, would not answer much of anything. And was sleeping a lot.
He has a staph infection in his sinus, as per a culture pulled endoscopically last Friday.
There was concern that the infection may have had access to the brain, as a result of all the fractures in the sinus and cranial floor that are trying desperately too heal.
As Becky posted last night, that coupled with the neuro change is why he went back to St. Joe’s where and x-ray, MRI, and lumbar puncture were immediately ordered, and by this morning all had been conducted.
Findings:
The x-ray showed the pv shunt is functioning well, and there has been no breach in the line. All is draining into his peritoneal cavity as hoped.
The MRI showed no evidence of infection having crossed over from sinus to brain. In fact, it showed how successful the last surgery was, and the graft from Taylor’s thigh/hip is healing very well. That area of the cranial floor has sealed off nicely.
The lumbar puncture showed no evidence of a CSF leak; showed no evidence of infection.
YAYYYYY!!!!
His fevers have subsided and he’s on antibiotics for sinusitis.
The fog lifted a bit today, and he was seeing things here and there, and speaking in full sentences. Whew.
The neuro team came in around 5:30 p.m. to release him this evening, but he wanted to stick around in ICU, in bed, and watch the debate before heading back to the apartment. He just wanted to relax a bit, and he lazily removed all the stickers, probes, cords, lines, etc., as he listened and faded.
He slept through most of it, but he insisted we stay.
Thanks for the prayers. So powerful.
Susie Roemhild is coming in next week for a few days, and Becky Ramsay two weeks after that. David Nielsen (Momo) near Thanksgiving. Roxy??? (Congrats, Amber)
Please let me know if/when you may be planning a visit – absolutely LOVE to have you. Seriously. It would be great. And there’s plenty of room right here.
Love and Blessings.
