Julia continues to improve from her infection today. She's only had a mild fever early this morning, and the bacteria count continues to lessen. Their immediate response was to double-up on some of the antibiotics she was already on, but they're testing other options on her cultures that they believe will be more effective. So possibly a switch there in the next day or two.
They are happy with the brain pressure progress, so they are not currently going forward with the second shunt. The scans yesterday did show that one of the vessels responsible for carrying blood to her brain is clogged, but the other vessels are compensating. The treatment for the clog is a blood thinner, which they are opting not to do with all the other medications she's on. That might be something that requires treatment in the future, but they say she's continuing to improve so they're going to leave it alone for now.
They are now openly referring to her "event" the other day as a stroke. Apparently there was left-side weakness (which is news to me, though Reed swears he told me), but he said she's raised her left arm today, and even turned it palm-up to reach for his hand, so that's really good news. She's also been tracking him with her eyes again. Not fully (but possibly because she's still tired), but it's a definite improvement over staring straight ahead. Pic today is of her looking at daddy =) She's also starting to get irritated with her condition, which honestly is a good sign. She's been fiddling with everything and showing annoyance on her face. The nurses say she's likely experiencing a little discomfort from all her new surgery sites, which is expected as she weens off the sedation.
Tomorrow is some sort of big "doctor conference" that includes other hospitals. Julia's unique case will be brought up, which is great because it gives the opportunity for other doctors across many fields to give their input on treatment. Hopefully something comes out of that.
And hopefully no more hurdles! She needs to get over this infection and move forward full speed with physical therapy and chemo.
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