Limbo Day 3 – Progress But Not Really

Here we are the third day out from surgery. While it seemed like Ryan had some progress today, it wasn’t the kind he ultimately needs.

Yesterday ended with Ryan having withdrawal chills and sweats from the stopping of his seizure medications. Overnight did not get much better. Ryan’s sweating became constant. It was so bad the nurse had to change his gown and sheets at least twice. On top of that he was nauseous again.

By the time I got to Ryan today they were treating him with ice packs and a room temperature in the 50’s. The nurses continued to take his temperature and it was normal.

The doctors were so concerned about the withdrawal symptoms that they started Ryan back on one of his seizure medications but a very low dose. While the doctors need to see a seizure, they need to be sure it is not a withdrawal seizure but a true epilepsy related one.

It is difficult to say if it was the seizure medication he took this afternoon or if it was pure coincidence but the sweating finally stopped. Yes! Progress!

Now we need to see progress towards the next steps and surgery. The surgeon tentatively set a surgery time for tomorrow but it was unclear what type of surgery would be done because Ryan still needed to have one or more seizures. Today the surgeon said that the surgery time for tomorrow will be pushed to next week.

So that gives Ryan the weekend. He is so sleep deprived it is difficult to believe he hasn’t triggered a seizure. I speculated that maybe he needs to move around more. The physical therapist today helped Ryan to do some squats. It seems more activity like that on very little sleep should do the trick.

Whether or not he tries this, he can’t force a seizure. We never know when he will get one outside of the hospital so it won’t be any different inside the hospital. The progress needed is not there yet but it will…with patience.