Follow up with Dr. Rigamonti

I saw Dr. Rigamonti this morning for my follow up visit. I got all of my stiches and staples out from all 8 incision sights. He is really happy with how things are going. WHEW, I was nervous. He seems to thing the headaches are rebound headaches from stopping narcotics cold instead of weaning and also he had my shunt at the lowest setting as a precaution so that not much fluid would be draining down my lumbar region where I had the leak to make sure that I would not start leaking again, since he had such a hard time fixing the leak. So he adjusted my shunt up one setting and said he would adjust it up one more at the next visit. I am having some double vision and blurry vision and he seems to think that will subside as the shunt gets set at a higher setting.

Hospital Update

Day number 16 in the hospital this go round, that makes 26 days since June 3rd. Needless to say, I am ready to go home. I have had 5 surgeries so far and have one more on Monday, July 13th. This past surgery was by far the hardest one yet. The doctor told me it would probablly be a 45 minute surgery and it lasted over 4 hours. They were trying to fix the leak in my back. I had been leaking spinal fluid out of the incision in my back since June 25th. The leak was due to taking the LP shunt out of my back. With me leaking spinal fluid, I have a high chance of infection and getting menegitis. I ended up with an infection in my spinal fluid. Coming out of surgery I was in agonizing pain, started throwing up the next afternoon from high pressure, they took the lumbar drain out and I wasn't leaking anymore, so therefore my pressure built back up. I ask the doctor why I was in so much pain this time, he has opened up my back and operated on it 3 times prior and it was never this bad, I couldn't even move. He had to remove a piece of my bone (vertabrea) to get to the leak. I was finally able to get out of bed for the first time today so things are getting better.