Yesterday we arrived at the clinic a little before 11am, had a wonderful consultation and examination with Dr Sclafani who took the time to explain everything to us, and did a very thorough examination before taking Courtney back for her procedure (the rumors are true, he's a great man!).
Courtney's procedure took a little longer than expected, about 3 hours. She had both of her jugulars and azygos ballooned, and other than a complication with the catheter in her left IJV everything from my understanding was fairly smooth going. She did say the actual ballooning was painful for her, but the good folks at AAC took good care of her to make sure was as comfortable as possible.
After about an hour in recovery we took a cab back to the hotel, got her a little food since she hadn't eaten since the night before. It was a fairly long night as the spot where the catheter went in was seeping a little requiring a change of the bandage every 3-4 hours. She was sore, physically tired and mentally exhausted.
Today we went back by the clinic to get her leg checked out which was all good. She's sleeping now, and has been in good spirits all day.....I decided to push her through the streets of Brooklyn going from the Clinic, through Prospect Park and up through all the little shops in Park Slope..we even got to watch Martin Sheen do a scene as they were shooting part of the new spiderman movie a block from the clinic.
Couple of interesting points to note, last night, she was able to sleep with her feet out from underneath the covers because they were hot (she used to sleep with her feet out, but hasn't in years). She didn't take any of her spasticity meds last night, and her legs didn't spasm at all. There have been a few times where she has had an itch on her foot or knee since last night that made her leg jump a little, but other than that the spasticity seems to be better post-treatment (time will tell if this is just temporary relief or not). She also mentioned being able to feel the carpet with the sole of her right foot, which she has had very little feeling in. She was having fun pointing at me last night with her right hand.....fun because she hasn't been able to straighten out her index finger at will for a while.
Thats about all I have to report at the moment. Will update again in a day or two.
Until then, here are a couple of pictures of her left ijv taken during her procedure, the banding in the balloon clearly shows where she had a problem on that side.
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