The procedure finished, so Susan's shunt is now draining externally. Her CSF from the brain is bright red instead of the usual yellow-gold due to the bleed.
She has quite a bit of swelling near the site. They thought at first it was fluid from her abdomen flowing upward through the part of the lower shunt they couldn't remove and had to cut, but the large amount of swelling didn't make sense.
Now they suspect the needle leading into her port catheter was dislodged during the procedure, causing saline going into the line to seep into the surrounding tissue. They'll shoot a quick x-ray to see if that's true. If so, they'll place a new needle and continue using her port. if not, it's more complicated. Either way, later tonight she'll have an MRI instead of a CT scan for a detailed look at the bleed.
Susan is awake and alert, and is the sweetest person in the whole world, I tell you. She's clever, too. Doctor, who Susan just called "honey": "How many fingers am I holding up?" Susan, who either has no idea how many or just can't get the word out: "That many."
Sent from my iPhone
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