WEDNESDAY - JAN 5TH

Day two post-surgery in the ICU was pretty slow in the morning and most of the
afternoon.  Alannah was waiting to get her appointment to go to IR (interventional
radiation?) where they put in the PICC line with some assistance from some fancy
equipment to help guide the PICC line into place.  She was also waiting to have a
CT scan per the neurosurgeons to make sure the grids were in the proper places.
There were a couple of visitors to the ICU today.  Zizi Mary came bearing a
Minnie Mouse balloon that was bigger than Alannah and chatted with Alannah for a
while.  Alannah also had some visitors from within the hospital that she has
gotten to know very well.  Candace, Crystal and Casey ( from the out patient
lab that Alannah frequented over the past couple of months for blood work to
help monitor her sodium levels and electrolytes ) also stopped by with balloons
and stuffed animals. 
Alannah was still running a low grade fever today, which is not uncommon after
surgery.  So, we are still giving her Tylenol to help try to keep the fever
under control.  Alannah is usually very good with taking her medicines but she
has been a little reluctant and puts up a strong fight but in the end knows
that the medicine is needed and takes it.  She is still not allowed to have food
or water yet because the PICC line is not installed.  She is still getting small
amounts of water from the sponge on a stick.  Alannah gets frustrated with Mom
and Dad sometimes and gives us a thumbs down sign when she isn't happy with one
of us.  Typically, the one who doesn't get the thumbs down sign get the coveted
thumbs up sign.  Even though her ICU nurse caused her a little pain here and
there with her IVs she always got the thumbs up sign. (See the attached pictures
from today for the thumbs up and down signs)
From the attached pictures for today you can see that Alannah's right eye looks
like she went a couple of rounds with Rocky Balboa.  Her right eye has swollen
completely shut.  This is due to the grids being placed on her brain which caused
some fluid around the brain to be displaced.  The fluid takes the path of least
resistance and the skin around the eye happens to be looser and therefore causes the
eye to swell shut.  This event was totally expected and the doctor told us it was
going to happen and the swelling will subside in a couple of days.
Alannah finally got an appointment for the PICC line for 2pm BUT we didn't
actually arrive at IR until about 4pm due to backups.  Before leaving the ICU,
the nurse removed the second of three IVs that Alannah got during the day of the
surgery.  This made Alannah very happy!  The PICC line was installed in about an
hour and Alannah did a super job according to the folks in the department who
were involved in getting the PICC line installed.  She was escorted to IR and the
CT scan by her ICU nurse whom she liked very well.  After the CT scan was
completed, Alannah was then admitted to the EMU (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit) floor
around 5:30pm.
Once on the EMU floor, Alannah's neurologist came in and chatted with Mom and Dad
about a couple of items.  Some of them being the removal of the last IV in
her hand if the PICC line worked OK, the removal of the urine catheter bag and
getting Alannah some real food that she has been asking for since last night.
The EMU floor nurses got her all hooked back up to the monitoring systems and
asked her what she wanted to eat and she said "pancakes with butter and water."
She also had the urine catheter bag and the final IV from the surgery removed.
Can you say HAPPY GIRL!  That definately got a thumbs up sign!
In the EMU, the grids that were placed during Alannah's surgery are plugged into
seizure monitoring equipment.  They are weaning Alannah off of the current seizure
medication so that they can see seizure activity with these grids and "map" exact
location(s) of any focal points causing the seizure activity, which they will then,
hopefully, be able to completely remove during the second surgery next week.
Also in the EMU room, Alannah is constantly being video recorded so that the
nurses can see her at all times, and so that they can see the seizure activity when
it is happening.  They can also hear everything going on in the room, which means
that mom and dad have to be on their best behavior at all times! Good luck with that!
Hopefully, they can mute the sound during playback!
Alannah had a couple of visitors late in the evening, Aunt Denise, Uncle Rick and
Zizi Frank showed up and stayed for a little bit. There was lively discussion among the adults,
unfortunately for the nurses monitoring the video recording!  Alannah was very tired so she
fell asleep while they were here, but got to say good-byes because she was awakened
by the nurse to get vitals around the time they were getting ready to leave.
She is still refusing to take the morphine for pain.  She was given two doses of
morphine when the PICC line was installed but that wasn't her decision.  She has
only had 3 doses of the morphine since 6pm the day of the surgery.  She is
one TOUGH cookie!
Alannah is resting and sleeping a lot better than she did yesterday or even from
this morning.  Along with this better resting/sleeping and ALL of your positive
thoughts and prayers our little pumpkin is doing GREAT!  Thank you again for ALL
that have kept and continue to keep Alannah in your thoughts and prayers!


THUMBS DOWN FOR PAINFUL I.V.



THUMBS UP FOR NURSE SUNNY FROM PICU