The story of today is one with happy endings but a troubling road to get here. Sometime yesterday afternoon Nicole began to struggle with a headache that came on her on Thursday afternoon. As the day progressed for her today the aches continued to worsen – to the point that she wasn’t really able to sit on any incline without surging pain in her face, neck and head. It became clear that the two different narcotics they gave her were not going to make a dent the pain and we decided to ask for the Anesthesiologist to pay her a visit. We remembered there was a slight possibility of a headache side effect from the spinal tap she was given on Thursday afternoon, and we wanted to check out that possibility. The doctor came by and checked Nicole out and basically communicated that he couldn’t be sure if what she was experiencing was something called a “spinal headache” or not. Essentially if it was this type of situation then the hole where the needle was inserted for the tap was basically leaking out fluid that insulated her brain from her skull. The pain was the pull of the tissue that “suspends” her brains in her skull. He did say that if this was the case there was no imminent danger from leaving it untreated and that at some point her body would patch that hole and replace the fluid.
The treatment for this condition is something called a “epidural blood patch” – basically they take blood from your arm and inject it into the epidural space in your back. This creates a sort of “bruise patch” that plugs the hole and thus fixes the leak. The risk factors are not high but it is an epidural procedure so there are some risks involved. We decided to wait on this procedure because there was uncertainty in the diagnosis and there were risks involved. We waited several hours and in these hours the situation got much worse for Nicole. At about 6:15 pm we asked for the doctor to return and ended up asking for the patch after serious deliberation and prayer. Nicole and I were of course visibly anxious about the procedure, but I am I am thrilled to say that remarkably the fix solved the problem within minutes of completion!
When I say “minutes” I literally mean minutes! She was lying down for the procedure and the next time she sat up after the procedure she had no more pain – remarkable considering she had severe pain for about 36 hours every time she sat up. Nicole is now able to sit upright and walk (though slowly) around without neck and head pain! We are truly thankful to be celebrating this blessing tonight.
All this to say that the day has been very tiring for us, and we have not had much time to be joyful with Annelise because of the circumstances. Annelise however has been a delight – in a very real way we feel blessed that she chose to sleep pretty much all of the day and not really fuss much about the time between her feedings. This evening we were able to interact with her for a good period of time and that was a real joy! She is of course cuter every time I see her and we are hearts are overjoyed with the privilege of knowing she is our child.
For those of you that knew of today’s events thank you for your prayers, calls, and texts they were a real blessing. Thank you all for the tangible ways you have loved us in this process.
Austin & Nicole
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