Brandy

Some of you already know that my sister is in the hospital at Barnes Jewish in St. Louis. She went to the hospital over 2 weeks ago with pain in her abdomen. 2 weeks later nobody could really diagnois her with anything. They did say she had pancrititas. But they were treating that and the pain and vommitting was continuing....LONG story short she ended up at Barnes and within 12 hours of being there they knew she had spinal meningitis. Brandy has a shunt which is something that drains the fluid from her brain properly to her stomach, the infection had spread to her brain and she has had her shunt taken out (thursday morning) and a drain put in to drain all the fluid out into a bag externally. That evening she went to Radiology to have a shunt series done (CT Scan) and they accidently pulled this drain out of her head!! (don't ask I have no clue how that happened????) Anyway this mean emergency surgery thursday night, so they tried doing this in her ICU room by numbing her. They got it in but it was not in a really great place. When we got up there last night (friday) we were told she was being taken to surgery again right away because the drain was not properly draining. So again she went off to surgery. She is in ICU right now, doing well I'm assuming, my mom is up there with her. She flew in from FL last night.

In 7-10 days they will be going to surgery again to put in a NEW shunt! This time it will be on the left side. Right now its on the right which means her right side has been shaved, next week when they go in they will have to shave the right side of her head, they were teasing her she would have a nice mohawk when she gets to go home. :-) Dillon will be jealous! (I refuse to let him have a mohawk) :-) So hopefully once this infection is cleared up she will be having surgery for the new shunt maybe by early NEXT week. I will try and update when I can.

While waiting in the ICU waiting room Thursday I met a really great family they have been there since early monday morning. They are in great need of prayers so please please keep Mary in your prayers. Mary is the mother of Alex and Reagan and wife to Scott. She suffered a brain annurisum and is in ICU. Here is the blog they are going to keep on her recovery. Their family touched my heart and the dedication Scott has to Mary is beautiful. He hasn't left the hospital (I don't know if he has even left the ICU floor) since they arrived Monday morning. So please keep this whole family in your prayers!! Thank you!! http://maryberryman.blogspot.com/