WE SPRUNG A LEAK!

But it's ok. Last night we noticed that some kind of liquid was trickling out of Tracy's incision. We called Dr. Oghalai and he told us to come in around noon the next day (today). Turns out it was spinal fluid that was seeping out of the incision. Sounds important, but not a big deal. In Dr. Oghalai's words, "In consideration of what could be happening and what didn't happen [that we expected to happen], this is nothing".

So, he put another compression bandage around her head (like the one she had on after surgery) and told her to keep it on for four days. Tracy said her head felt better even before we left his office. He made the bandage wider so it would not dig into her skin like the first one did. On a lighter side, she looks like princes Leia having lost one of her hair buns serving pancakes with Aunt Jemima.

He also gave her some medicine that will help to dry up the excess fluid. She'll take that for the next two weeks. If this doesn't work, he will put her on Prednisone and he may want to put in a couple more stitches to tighten up that incision. We are now supposed to get the stitches out next week on Wednesday instead of this week on Thursday.

He also said that the headaches were probably from the spinal fluid and not from sinus. He had her do some facial movements and commented that he was surprised that there was no movement on the right side. But, it may take weeks, months or... to get function back in that area.

We were gone all day today, so if you tried to call for a visit, I am sorry.

I asked about the void left in her skull from the tumor. Will the brain expand to fill it? He said the brain will expand some, but the void will also be filled in by the fat they took from her tummy and the spinal fluid will fill up the rest.

There is still more to do tonight and Tracy is really tired. Long day for her. A couple of nice visits and a wonderful meal, which was great since we were in Houston for the day.

Always in appreciation,
Jeff