Friday, May 4, 2012

I figured it out

I am 85% sure I have figured out what is wrong with her.

The Dr. came in and mentioned in passing, maybe it's the baclofen pump (he just said it because of the sleepiness).  I hadn't mentioned the loose hands and the being able to stretch her body because they didn't seem relevant at the time.

It is baclofen pump overdose.

Her baclofen pump is a device implanted in her abdominal cavity (not in the stomach, just the area around the stomach) under the skin.  It has a membrane which they insert a needle to fill and remove medicine (baclofen).  Tubing runs around her side (under the skin) into her spinal fluid.  The pump sends the baclofen through the tubing and into the spinal fluid.  The baclofen relaxes her tight muscles.  They can program the pump from externally through radio waves.

She got a new pump last July because the battery life was up.

It fits all of her symptoms...sleepiness is the #1 side-effect of overdose.  This week she has been having loose hands and been able to stretch and has been smiley (because she doesn't feel so tight).  She can't pee and poop because the muscles are too relaxed to push it out.  As I researched this the last few minutes another side-effect is seizures and hypothermia.

Ding-ding-ding.

Now somebody give me a Dr.'s paycheck for a hard days work!!!

They are still planning on doing the head CT and shunt series while they contact the Rehab Dr. (Baclofen pump Dr.) on-call.

It has not been confirmed yet.  But I am almost positive that this is the solution.

I also do not know what the treatment is.  I'm hoping it's just lower the dose slowly over the next few days and we'll be outta here.

2 comments:

Mrs. O said...

and if they send a resident, you can ask for the doc on call. My neurosurgery resident wanted to send Ty home because according to him everything looked normal. Rehab ordered the ultrasound and ct with contrast which resulted in surgery (they thought the tumor was a possible gastric artery bleed)

Go with your gut and yes, you should get some sort of remuneration for figuring it out.

Amy said...

Way to go Dr. Mikael! I can totally see where you are going with this. Sounds very plausible.