Karen's Blog

Update from Paul - March 30th at 5:26pm

Karen continues to be monitored for vasospasms. This is a very critical time for her as you will understand if you have taken a chance to visit one of the aneurysm websites. We are told it can take as long as ten days or so to make is safely through this period. The risk to Karen for a possible stroke is very high in her particular case. Since the neurologists were unable to successfully complete the “coil” procedure, her aneurysm is being left to heal on its own.

Here’s the catch with Karen, the way you control the vasospasms is with medication that elevates the blood pressure, forcing the blood to flow through the vessels. Elevated blood pressure could cause the aneurysm to bleed again. Obviously, this would be a serious setback. So, they are watching things very closely, and she receives daily dopler sonograms to measure the velocity of the blood flow in the blood vessels in her head.

Today, they said there has been a slight elevation in the velocity (higher velocity means restricted flow), but that she was “being a good girl”. We will be counting the days of course, praying that she makes it through this critical time safely.

We did see some VERY limited motor activity, but the Doctors are reluctant to get too excited about it. From our perspective it was more than yesterday. She still remains unconscious though, which is very frustrating for all of us.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Thursday, March 30, 2006