January 20, 2009

Tonight's blog comes from Denver, Colorado... we've safely arrived at Alan's posh pad. This man should be an interior designer on the side! Anyway, I've talked to Mom Gail and Donald at the hospital. They were telling me that Christy was dealing with some pain today. She looked more agitated and was more physically active and posturing more. Posturing is the involuntary movements to stimuli that are reflexive. They made sure, of course, that Christy received pain medication at those times & she responded by calming immediately. Christy's fractures are healing on their own, but will still be painful for at least another week. Her rib fractures, scapula fracture (shoulder blade), and spinal processes fractures can not be casted like a limb and will heal on their own.

I placed a picture to the right of one of the vertebrae so you could pick out the spinous process. No part of her spinal cord is injured, just fractures of the spinous process in the thoracic region.

The thoracic region of the back refers to the 12 vertebrae in the middle of the back. Here's another picture to check that out.

Christy's medications are slowly starting to switch over from being administered IV (intravenously) through her P.I.C. line, to being delivered through the feeding tubes. Most times the medications that go down the feeding tube are regular pills, crushed and added to water and administered down the feeding tube. Sometimes they come in an elixir or suspension. You may also be wondering about the "P.I.C." line. It's a Peripherally Inserted Central line that is placed in the arm, usually at the crook of the elbow and travels up to the large vein towards the heart. The vein that the PIC line sits in is much larger than the ones further from the heart. A large vein allows you to infuse antibiotics, potassium replacements and other potentially irritating drugs safely. Some medications are too strong for delivery into the smaller IVs in the hands and arms. You can also draw blood easily and painlessly from this type of line.

This picture shows a PIC line (or also written PICC line) in the right arm. Christy had received this maybe a week ago at her bedside in the ICU. They place one of these lines for long term IV use. This is different than a regular peripheral IV, shown in the picture below. A regular Peripheral IV only lasts about four days or less & then has to be moved. Also, the catheter that stays inside the arm on a regular peripheral IV (below) is only about two inches long and very narrow in diameter. As you can see in the above photo, the PIC catheter that stays in the arm is of substantial in size and length in comparison to the 2 inch regular IV catheter.

It's 1am here and I'm very sleepy... I will continue to update the blog as I receive information. May everyone have a sound sleep... and I'll be praying at 08:00am tomorrow with all of you guys to Christy back to consiousness.

big hug, gabby