Actually, Day 16

Q: What course is a neurosurgery student REQUIRED to FAIL in order to begin residency?
A: Communications.

So Eli DID go into surgery Monday, after being assured Sunday that there would be no surgery, but the real fiasco was that the valve controlling her CSF flow malfunctioned after the surgery, causing 190 cc to drain in a very short period, and then neurosurgery would NOT respond to calls to come evaluate the situation and bring a bag for the fluid to drain into. They came and hung the vitri....vitri something or other, I can't really figure out what they're calling it, at a level to use physics to dictate the flow instead of the valve, so everything was okay, but an incident report was filed by the nurse nevertheless.

Tuesday was spent speaking with Patient Relations representatives about the bag incident and about why neurosurgery communicates with no one, apparently including each other. I also went through Eli's chart with the neurosurg PA to figure out when exactly everything has happened and why exactly they've followed the course of action that they have. We are all much more clear now, hence the corrective title of this post.

Apparently Tuesday's wrath fell upon neurosurgery speedily and soundly; on a normal day I'm lucky to see one rep, usually at some odd hour, but today I saw not one, not two, but four (count them!) FOUR neurosurg team members, INCLUDING the high and mighty attending (the surgeon who has actually been in messing with Eli's brain), and all before 3 pm no less.

Yesterday and today were also better days because we bit the bullet, paid the $10-per-park parking garage fee, and enjoyed the company of Nin and Julia for the better part of the morning and afternoon. They have great Child Life Services here, so Julia had lots of fun playing with little friends doing fun activities.

Eli got another turban today. The cultures from the 16th, 18th, and 19th have all stayed negative so far, so we're still on for reinternalization on Friday. Pray hard, everybody!