Bleeding Around (not in) her Brain

Good Evening

 

Today was not a good day for Andrea as her headache continued, maybe a little worse than yesterday.  When the pump doctor found out about it today he right away ordered a CT scan of her head and found that she has bled between her skull and her sack that surrounds her brain.  It likely has only seeped there and the reason being that in trying to control her pump clot her heparin level went too high.  In the late afternoon the pediatric neurosurgeon came in to see her and asked a lot of questions.  He also said that they see quite a lot of this problem in patients who have had heart surgery and are on blood thinners, so it is a fine line to walk to control and balance it out, and is extra challenging when the patient has a device installed too like Andrea has.  He said right away that he was not too concerned from a neurology point of view, 5% of patients with this problem require surgery to fix it, but he did not expect that in her case, in reviewing her CT scan he saw that she has had 2 bleeds one a week or 10 days ago, which coincides with her high heparin level at the time and again yesterday morning when her heparin level went up and they stopped it for awhile.  Unlike Coumadin another blood thinner, heparin has immediate effects and also disappears just as quick, so now they will watch heparin levels very closely.  The danger is that she may develop a serious clot in the pump, her pain is expected to persist a few days in her head maybe a week or so as the body reabsorbs the clots in her skull.  They are monitoring her very closely, every hour they will wake her up, check her pupils, ask questions like her name, the current month, where she is etc.  So far she is completely clear, answering questions promptly and correctly.  They are also watching for her reflex actions and whether she has strength in her hands and feet also.  The pump doctor was relieved that her pain came on so slowly and has not increased a lot indicating that she has likely only bled very slowly.  Fortunately it has not bled inside her brain, which would be much more serious.  The pump doctor said he had patients before with this problem, and so far they have always cleared up.  Please pray for a miracle for our dear daughter, she desperately needs a break and a turn around, although she does not seem discouraged and understands her situation well.

 

Thanks, Maynard