Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Well today was another interesting day. Billy's mom came to the hospital early so I could get somethings done at home. I spoke with his mom couple of different times during the day and she said he was doing really good. They brought in a special chair and he was able to sit and visit with his mom for a couple of hours and seemed to really enjoy himself. Then around 3pm his head started hurting really bad. When I got to the hospital the pain had intensified a lot. He didn't want to talk or hear anyone else talk. Light was hurting his eyes and he said that the pain was as bad as it was when the aneurysm first ruptured. He also started to have spasms in his lower back as well which is prob. from all the laying and twisting in the bed. The pain medicine wasn't working and he said he couldn't take it anymore. The doctor finally came in and he decided he wanted Billy to have another CT scan. The CT showed that Billy's ventricles were enlarged since the CT they did on Thursday. They think that his pressures were building because the fluid was building up. They were considering putting in another lumbar drain, but decided to try another approach first. His sodium level was lower than they wanted so they gave him a bolus of sodium through his IV and gave him more sodium tablets. They are pushing high levels of sodium because it helps prevent the fluids from building up in his head. The crazy thing is that as much sodium they are puttiing in his body his blood pressure is extremely low as well. The brain is an extremely delicate organ!! They gave him a few other meeds and finally about an hour he started to get some relief. Before bed he was able to eat something and carry on a conversation without getting really sick. So I was totally emotially drained after tonight. It takes so much out of you when your worried about someone and when there's really nothing you can do to help them. I'm trying to remember it's one more day down and were that much closer to recovery.