Post-op appointment disaster

I was excited to see my surgeon today.  I was excited for him to take me off of full restrictions. I was excited to show him the abscess on my wound that ruptured during my sleep, thinking maybe he'd just give me an antibiotic and send me on my way. I was excited to go to Ikea and walk around for as long as I could (currently, I can walk around for 30 minutes at a time). I was excited.

Until he looked at my wound, told be that there was no obvious infection/abscess, that it is probably CSF (cerebrospinal dluid- brain fluid) leaking, that I would be admitted right away, I'd have a CAT scan of my head stat, and that I'll go to the OR in the morning for another brain surgery. Then I wasn't excited. Then I was scared, confused, a little mad and nervous. So then... I laughed. Why not?!?

So, Jason & I sat in his office for 1 hour while they got everything approved by insurance.  Considering we got a $102,000 bill from the hospital this past Friday, saying that nothing was covered by insurance, we joked that they were, again,  giving their approval - just not agreeing to pay for it.  One thing we are good at... we always laugh when we're together, no matter how bad the situation.

Then we walked across to PA hospital and sat in the admission waiting room for another hour before moving on up to the neuro floor.  My nurse here is bizarre. We'll leave it at that.

Infectious Disease Drs have been in and are starting me on Vancomycin and another IV antibiotic. Then they'll send off lots of cultures tomorrow to see which meds, exactly, I have to be on. They said I could go home on oral antibiotics, or a PICC line, or be stuck in here until the weekend if the cultures grow nothing. I'm so confused. They said maybe the Neurosurgeon won't have to reopen my skull IF he opens my scalp and finds just a large infection. However, my CT scan did not show any abscess nor did it show hydrocephalus, so no shunt needed (another option we were warned about). That's good news!

So, basically...

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN SURGERY TOMORROW!!

Happy Valentines Day to us!!