Surgery

Jackie’s night continued to be restless.  We held off on his bath until 9am.  This seemed to settle him and we had a low key morning watching ESPN and an old movie with Bill Murray.  Laughter is good medicine so a funny movie was appropriate for this morning.  We also lowered the hoisting device above Jackie’s bed and played some hoops.

We did not schedule PT or ST for today.  I forgot to mention something that happened yesterday morning. Prior to when ST was in the room I was on a hunt for chocolate pudding.  It seems to be the flavor of choice as all of the surrounding nursing stations have plenty of vanilla but not chocolate. While I was off raiding fridges, Jim and Jackie’s nurse Kristen were working with Jackie on sounds.  Jim had just given Jackie an ice chip and then asked him to open his mouth and say Ahhh.  Very softly, he verbalized Ahhh twice.  It was a huge baby step toward communication.  He has not made any additional sounds since then.

It was about 1:30pm when we got called down to the pre-op area.  We stayed there with Jackie until it was time to wheel him back into the OR.

We got word that the surgery went as planned and he was being sent for a CAT scan and an X-ray to confirm placement of the shunt.

Jackie got back to his room a little after 8pm.  He is still very sleepy.  We plan to give him some pain meds throughout the night so he can rest comfortably.  The Lumbar drain is out!!

Will give more updates tomorrow.  Thanks for all of your prayers.