[I think that Elisabeth's new incision and sutures
look like a caterpillar crawling across her head.]
Where do I even begin?
So much has happened, so many little details. I'm quite sure I could write a book on all the happenings of the past three weeks, but instead I will try to make this as simple as possible.
The shunt that was placed on March 20th wasn't - shall we say - compatible with Elisabeth (I will spare you the technical details). It was indeed the source of the severe pain that Elisabeth experienced over the course of ten days.
The new shunt that was placed on April 2nd has resolved that problem. It is working beautifully and the original pain is now gone.
However, we now have a new problem - Elisabeth is addicted to the morphine that was continually pumped into her over the course of those ten days when no one was quite sure what was wrong. And let me tell you - she is a great example of why we tell kids to stay away from drugs. Oh, how miserable she is! She tosses and turns and moans and groans. Sometimes she just seems downright frantic - her body has become dependent upon drugs and she is suffering severe withdrawal symptoms if she doesn't get them.
Yesterday we began the weaning process. We have a careful plan in place to take her off the morphine slowly - and hopefully with as little discomfort as possible. This could take a while - or she could surprise us and respond quickly to her 'rehab' program. We'll just have to take it one day at a time.
The good news is that we finally understand everything that has happened. We finally know that the shunt was the cause of her original pain. We finally know that the second shunt they placed last week has relieved her of that pain. And we finally know what is causing her current state of discomfort. Oh, how good it feels to finally have answers; to finally understand what the cause of her torment was/is.
Finally, she is on the road to recovery.
