The Day Before

We are having a time here at St. Jude, good and bad. We accessed her port yesterday, which is always dramatic. And this morning we had to do a pre-op screening with labs. So, we were stuck again, cause you can't do a culture through a port (the heparin interfers with the results).
Dr. Sanford actually was at the hospital while we were there, so we saw him early and had the rest of the day to ourselves. As we were talking to him, I informed him (once again) that we had not seen the scans. So, we found a PC and took a look. He showed us the issues first seen in the MRI and then the contrast dye CT. You could plainly see what he was talking about if you are like us and have looked at many MRI scans. The area of the brain that does deal with balance does have visible pressure on it, as well as the area of the brain that controls swallowing is not receiving little (if any) CSF (fluid). I have come to the conclusion that because of this, Ivee is nauseated often with or without being feed. She never has the desire to eat cause of how it makes her feel...worse! So, this is also (once again, my conclusion) the reason why she won't try to eat by mouth, and why she had digressed in that area. The pressure and consistency of the scar tissue has caused this area to loose more and more communication with the other parts of the brain. SO, my conclusion is that not only will this surgery hopefully allow Ivee to stand and walk alone, but that it will cause her to no longer be naucious and give her a desire to eat. Dr. Sandford is not sure how extensive a surgery this will be until he gets in there. He said it could possible just be that he needs to slice open the scar tissue to allow it to drain, or it maybe more involved. It's just not something that you can tell from a scan! I hope that all made sense!
We will be at the hospital at 5:45 a.m. Surgery is at 8:00 a.m. I will update more later.
Also, we visited the zoo this afternoon. She screamed when we left. She didn't want to leave.