Today is my sister's 50th birthday. Amanda wanted to celebrate with her, too, so we took lunch up to the hospital instead of taking her out. Grandma and I swung by Olive Garden and got salad, bread sticks, and seafood fettucini alfredo to share. It was the best I've seen my sister eat since the accident. Several other people had sent birthday cards to her, as well, and she seemed perkier than I've seen her in quite a while. Apparently, they got a good night's sleep.
A doctor came to see Amanda this morning and said he wants to do another cat scan to get a reading on where they're at right now. They've already sent Amanda's films to an pelvic expert in Jacksonville, Florida for a second opinion and we're waiting to hear something on that.
Several of Amanda's exterior wounds have become infected. It seems they didn't irrigate and clean her wounds in Columbia like they had here and some sites began getting red. She showed me her sutures yesterday and the ones around her middle looked kind of rough. Also, around the feeding tube that's inserted in her side the tissue was very red. We are wondering why they've left the feeding tube in. She's eating regular food now and they haven't needed the feeding tube in over a week. Her Wound Vacs have also been removed, rendering routine surgeries unnecessary - YAY! Perhaps the lack of routine surgeries is the reason she still sports the feeding tube. Perhaps it has to be surgically removed and they don't want to take her back into surgery just for that. But that's only speculation.
She had some stitches removed yesterday and the doctor pointed out the infected areas to her. Earlier this week, the trauma doc told my sister that, at present, the only life-threatening issues are the possibility of infection and pneumonia. Now that she has a few infected sites, we really need to pray that the infection doesn't spread.
Amanda seems to be in much better spirits. She's scared that she may have to have the pelvic surgery after all, but is willing to consider whatever's necessary for her complete and total healing. We had a very good discussion today - her mother, Grandma, me, Amanda, and my sister's best friend, about the situation in Columbia and the pelvic surgeon's reasons for not operating. It was quite an open, honest discussion and the best we've had since the accident. In the end, however, it was nothing more than supposition, because there's just too much we don't yet know.
Waiting seems to be the name of the game right now - waiting for input from other pelvic surgeons, waiting to see how her body heals itself, waiting for the trauma docs to consider all the evidence and decide how to move forward. They've very candidly told Amanda that the most typical mistake that people make at this point is to move too fast and they have NO intention of doing that with her. They will consider all the information, from every angle, several times before they make any decisions, and they want Amanda to understand that this process will be very slow and very long.
At least she's back in Augusta with a team of doctors who seem to really care about her and where she feels safe.
Happy Birthday, Sis - I get to rub your age in for another 3 years - until I hit 50!
No comments:
Post a Comment