Spinal Tap - IV Meds

Megan had a third spinal tap/lumbar puncture (LP) last Friday, May 20. It went pretty smoothly. We knew the nurses, and of course the same registration lady, so it was all pretty easy. They gave her a full bag of fluid before the LP, which helps prevent too much headache from taking the fluid out of her head. The GI Dr. came in and visited with us because nothing had helped with the stomach issues. She was very nice. She decided to put her on a 24 hour IV pump for Zophran to hopefully get her nausea under control and also IV Pepcid to help with the stomach pain. While she was under for the LP, the nurse accessed her port so she wouldn't have to deal with having it done. She is such a baby about her port and just hates it, so this was the best answer. And, the nurse did it with no problems and got it in on the first try and Megan slept through the whole thing.

Dr. Hanson did the LP again and this time her pressure was just a tad higher than 3 weeks ago. So he took her from 43 down to 14 this time. Because he took off so much fluid, he gave her another whole bag of fluid after the LP, which he hadn't done the last 2 times. They were hoping this would really help with her head pain and pressure.

So we went home and the Home Health nurse came right in the middle of our Girl Scout meeting. It took us over an hour to go through everything and learn how to use the equipment and medicines. So Gary and Lynn started grilling the burgers and dogs while we hooked Megan up to her new appendage. Then we finished with our Girl Scout celebration of finishing our silver award work and having our parents meeting to plan everything for the silver award project.

So, later Friday night Megan's port started leaking the fluid from the IV. I tried taping it down more, but it just kept leaking. So the nurse cam out on Saturday morning and had to re-access her port. Not a pretty sight! Megan was very upset and just had a big fit. But, after an hour's worth of Emla cream, she finally let the nurse put in the needle - and she hardly felt it - and she got it in on the first try. I call that good!! The best news of all though is that the IV Zophran is working and keeping her from having any nausea, which was literally driving her nuts. Thank God! The pepcid seems to finally be working some too and keeping the stomach pain from being quite so bad. Yippee!!