March 6, 2016 -- The Event

After 4 nights in the hospital, I was feeling strong and ready to head home. Unfortunately, the drain had other plans for me.



The Trouble Maker

The typically routine task of pulling a drain turned into possibly the scariest 15 minutes of my life. When the tube was being removed, it ruptured something under the flap. Immediately, I could feel the blood pulsing under the flap.  It didn’t take long until my head was visibly filling up like a water balloon. It really got troubling when I started to lose control of my body and see psychedelic-esque visuals, coupled with the most intense pain I have ever experienced.  Unable to keep myself composed, I was left clinging to Carrie (who handled the situation impressively calm, and who has been there for me throughout) and counting on a swift response from the medical team.  I was quickly, although it seemed to take forever, taken into surgery to crack my head back open.  At that time, something like a liter and a half of blood was released.  Good news- no apparent neurological damage / bad news- flap is dying.  Certainly don’t want to lose flappy. If the flap goes the implant goes and we will have a lot more to work through.



CT after the blood was released - still a little troubling 

Carrie- Cool as the other side of the pillow throughout this BS

  

That’s when the leeches were deployed to save the day.  The flap was dying because of a blood flow issue. My simple understanding is that blood was entering the flap, but the veins were so compromised from the emergency procedure that the blood supply could not make it to where it needed to go.  The leeches act as pumps, as well as secreting peptides and proteins that prevent clotting further, to improve the blood flow. I spent several days bleeding out to save the skin--Thanks Leeches!

Start of leech therapy

Path of leech therapy

 I spent the next 6 nights in ICU working on getting everything strong enough to survive outside the hospital.