Surgery day

RJ underwent surgery this morning. What they hoped would be a simple burr hole & drain turned into the anticipated craniotomy instead. Once inside the skull, the fluid was found to be layers of clotting that has occurred over the last year, and under the membrane instead of over it. With these turns of events, the surgery took 2 1/2 hours instead of the expected 1 hour.

After coming out of surgery, he had a CT scan done again, which we later saw. It showed that the space that had been filled with the clot was now filled with the expanding brain, a very good thing :)

RJ has had many visitors today, while he did the usual post-op doze and talk. He was with it enough to have snappy come-backs for people, and we got him to laugh some too. Now he is resting as much as he can with hourly neuro checks occurring all night tonight. He has an antibiotic, anti nausea med, Kepra, and morphine keeping him hydrated, comfortable, and hopefully free of infection or seizures. He also has a drain that clears fluids and helps re-expand the compressed brain area.

Tomorrow is another CT scan, and maybe some more awake time, we shall see. Before he leaves here we will have evaluations done by therapy, and he may be participating in some therapy here or as an outpatient. All that remains to be seen yet.