First day at Kaiser

Sara is pretty stable this morning. Not doing much except getting poked on and examined by the new doctors. Apparently these two hospitals do a lot of stuff in tandem and communicate between the two.

They are repeating the scans, labs, etc. as part of their intake evaluations and getting her care setup. They will do a repeat of the CT and CT Angio to check bloodflow, etc. and the condition of her spinal fracture.

I did talk to the Neurologist on the Neurosurgical team. He did a brief exam of Sara and has read her chart from Davis. In the course of our discussion I found out more that was going on with her than I had even been told at Davis. It actually pissed me off, and I said so, that there was anything I didn't know about what was going on with her. He explained it to me, and how I could see those signs, but I'm not the trained eye. I'm just a real quick study.

He did say that for someone who has been through everything that she has, and survived, is sign that she is definately a fighter. He went down the line of her injuries...and it kind of hit me just how much she's endured. (I try to look at each thing individually or I would get so overwhelmed...)

The car accident, head trauma, neck trauma, hanging upside down, unconsciousness, C1 fracture, tear in her vertebral artery, blood clot forming where her artery tore, blood clot dislodging and moving into her basal brain and causing a pontine stroke and coma, helicopter transport to better care, extraction of the clot and the administration of anticlotting drugs, conscious and aware and nobody knowing, MRI results, locked-in syndrome, buildup of pressure in her brain, buildup of fluid in her brain, code blue and resuscitation, coma, emergency CT scan, having a shunt put in to drain, subarrachnoid hemmorage and bleeding into the brain, pneumonia, traecheostomy, ambulance transport to Kaiser.

Fifteen days. All of that in fifteen days.

The Neurologist was very straightforward, which I appreciate. He doesn't see movement in her extremities yet and isn't making any conclusions this early on.

After meeting with the Neurologist and the Neurosurgeon in charge over here I get a good sense that they will be very thorough and coordinated in her care. They came in and introduced themselves to Sara and tried a couple of questions, but she's pretty tired from being rolled about an hour ago. I know she's not showing them much to go on from here, but that's ok.

At least this room is a lot more peaceful than the one at UCD. Even being at the end of the hallway there was so much activity passing by her room. The nurses did a great job of keeping it calm in there, though.

I'll keep you posted.