EVD day 2 - Adjusting

Day 2 went better than the previous night.  Meagan had some trouble keeping up her blood pressure so there were a few scary hours in the early morning.  Her pressure had dropped to 80/28 and the nurses were concerned.  They tried to wake her, but we could not get Meagan to stir.  After redoing the blood pressure with no change, and Meagan still lethargic they started to push more fluids and sodium to bring the numbers up.  We got it to about 90/40 when she would finally start to open her eyes if they startled her, so the nurses were comfortable with that and just monitored closely the rest of the early morning hours.

 Dr. R came in at the start of rounds to check on her.  He was happy thus far with how she was draining and decided he would once again increase the pressure in the drain. She tolerated it fairly well, mostly sleeping, until later today when she became sick.  She just seemed uncomfortable.  Then I heard the heart rate monitor beep, then I heard her heavy breathing, and I knew it was coming - she threw up all over her bed (of course a mere hour after we had just changed it).  She seemed relieved after she got sick, so most likely it was head related.  Once we got her cleaned up and back on her pillow, she looked glassy eyed again.  I got a bag just in case, but after a few minutes of heavy breathing she ended up passing out asleep rather than throwing up again.

She slept quite a while and then woke up in a much better mood.  She was almost "delerious" acting this evening - arms and legs quite restless, eyes darting around, talking a lot but with much more slurred speech, sticking her tongue out a lot and playing with her teeth and tongue making faces..etc.  It sounds silly but it's not her "norm" so they are just watching her in case this is her way of saying "too much" to the pressure.  Honestly, seeing her this way, though, is better than her screaming in pain, so I will just count it as a positive.  I'm sure her body and brain are going through a lot trying to adjust to the new pressure settings and every time it gets ramped up it's another adjustment that needs to manifest physically somehow.

This was Meagan most of the afternoon, 

smacking her lips or playing with her mouth

And of course we had a silly face too

The day was scattered with a few visitors - in person and from afar.  We had a few hydro friends send sweet gifts (and yummy snacks for me) to offer some cheer.  An old Hydro friend visited and brought me several meals for the week and had a nice visit with us.  She also brought Meagan a special Curious George which Megs seemed to really like.  Lastly, one of the girls' dance teachers decided to come by and bring lunch.  It was nice to have a visit with her and get some "adult conversation" and a brief mental break amid the medical jargon and focus on Meagan's needs.

Snuggling her gifts from friends

One of the Burke Connolly Irish dance teachers shares some smiles with Megs

Dr. R stopped by once more to check on her since she had been sick. He said he would return early in the morning to bump up her pressure once again and we would see how day 3 would unfold. Since her vomiting hadn't been continuous he said we will just chalk it up to her trying to adjust and as long as it doesn't increase or get more frequent we will tolerate some illness along the way. I was fine with that - he had warned me that along this process we could see intermittent seizures, vomiting, lethargy..etc.. as her brain and body try to tolerate the pressure increases, so we will just keep a close eye on that.

Megs finally calmed down from her crazy restless behavior after about 3 hours, and dozed off to sleep. Hopefully tonight will be uneventful and we will start day 3 with a good foot forward :)