Hey, Mom. How are you? I wanted to give you an update on Ramsey. Basically, I think yesterday lasted a week. It was the longest day that was full of so many revelations.
We had a consult with the neurosurgeon in the morning. He showed us Ramsey’s MRI scans. The bleed is at the top of her head. He explained that Ramsey has an AVM (arterial venus malformation, essentially a tangle of arteries) that she was born with, which is what started bleeding. We may never know what caused the bleed as it can sometimes happen randomly. He explained that Ramsey would have an endovascular procedure that would stop the bleed and provide more information on the AVM. But in 6 weeks, we have to come back to have open surgery to fix the issue entirely. If we don’t do the surgery, this bleed could recur throughout her life, and next time could have much worse results. My 8 year old has to have brain surgery.
Jennifer arrived while Ramsey was having the procedure. We opted to get lunch, and when we got back to the room, Jade had arrived after taken care of the dogs. We all sat and talked until the neurosurgeon came with an update. Ramsey’s procedure showed that she had multiple bleeds. They were able to clamp the main one, but because of radiation use in the procedure, they didn’t want to continue giving Ramsey more. He said she needed to “cool down” before getting more radiation to stop the additional bleeds. So, she will have a second procedure for this that will likely happen on Tuesday.
When they finally brought Ramsey back from the procedure, it was overwhelming. There were like 10 people in the room doing various things (although a couple of residents were just observing). There was so much movement and chaos that Cliff and I felt both helpless and overprotective. Eventually, everyone left, and we waited for Ramsey to wake up completely.
When she finally seemed awake, she told the nurse she was thirsty. “What do you want?” “Soda.” “How about some water?” “Soda.” “I can get you juice.” “Soda.” “How about a few sips of water first?” “I don’t like water.”
It was such a simple interaction, but it was so quintessentially Ramsey. In the end, she got her soda, and I fed her a pack of goldfish, which was the first food she had had since breakfast the day before. She started showing her silly self by talking more and saying her silly made up word “Yarks” a bunch. It was so delightful to see it. When she noticed that Jennifer was here, she said “Hospital” as if to say, you do realize where we are, right?
Otherwise, we had a revelation last night when reviewing events with Jade. The first night we were here, one nurse was training another nurse how to use an ultrasound machine to install an IV line. Ramsey really put up with a lot of prodding, but ultimately, she started crying a lot because they were hurting her. It was so painful to watch. I should have stopped them from using her as a Guinea pig, but I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know how to speak up for her in this medical environment. But it won’t happen again. Ramsey isn’t able to advocate for herself, and they aren’t going to take advantage of that to do their training. There won’t be a next time, because mama bear is coming out.
Hey, Mom! How are you? 