Advocate

KK woke up this morning and wanted to do something outside of the room, so I wheeled her over to the playroom, but it wasn't open yet.  When we got back, the chief resident of neurosurgery came in and talked about going home tomorrow if the CT scan they ordered looked good today.  KK ate breakfast and did great with PT walking the floor and climbing stairs afterwards.  Then we went for the CT scan.  The neurosurgery team did not come by with the results after the CT scan, but the nurse told us that it "looked good" though there was a bit more fluid than when the EVD was in (hmm...).  After lunch, KK said she wanted to take a nap and planned to go back to the playroom after she snoozed.  Around 3pm, I woke her from her nap.  She was a bit weepy and saying, "I don't know why I'm crying" (this sounds familiar).  I wheeled her over to the playroom and we played a round of Trouble.  By the end, it was getting harder and harder for her to play.  When we finished, she asked if she could go lay down (uh-oh!).  As we left the playroom, she started to cry quietly again.  When we got back to the room, she immediately got in bed, started crying and saying, "I don't know why I'm crying", then started to gag and throw up (ugh!).  I asked the nurse to let the neurosurgery team know what was going on.  The resident on call came over and he dismissed us by saying, "The CT scan looked good this morning".  I was not happy and told the nurse as much.  I know that it doesn't take long for a catheter to get clogged and pressure to increase...I have seen it happen all too often in my little girl.  So the nurse paged the chief resident and informed him of what happened to keep him in the loop in case it happens again.  KK will be monitored closely and I will advocate that we will not leave until KK can sit up for longer periods of time without increased cranial pressure causing her to throw up.

By the way, she looked better after throwing up and had a good evening.  She watched TV for quite a while and ate a good dinner.  She was even willing to get up to go to the bathroom (which surprised me because I didn't expect her to want to get out of bed again).