Lucky Thirteen

Good afternoon everyone!

I’m really excited to report that I have come through my second embolisation with flying colours! So the thirteenth is definitely luck for some. Although it has been a very long day, I could hardly contain my excitement about posting this blog, so the minute I was back in my ward I got Dad to hand me the laptop. Little did I realise though that my arms and legs were still paralysed from the anaesthetic, so instead of writing the blog myself, I had to dictate it to my Dad, so I can’t be held accountable for the spelling!

The day started really early for me, with my last feed being at 2:00am. I was determined to get in as much as possible as I knew I wouldn’t be fed again for a while. After my 2:00am fed I decided there was nothing constructive to do but sleep. Staying awake and worrying about my next procedure would do no one any good, so pretty soon I drifted back to snoozy-land. At about 4:30am I awoke again, and got a bath; I really love water and being in the bath was an awesome feeling. I started thrashing about a little, thinking I could better Michael Phelps’ Olympic swimming record, and then out popped the intravenous drip in my foot. The next while was spent finishing the bath and re-dripping me, this time in my arm. Lo and behold, the time had flown by so quickly by then that next my parents arrived. They looked nervous and they were suffering from trepidation about my procedure this morning. I reassured them that I was ready, and that everything would go really well.

Just after 7:00am I was wheeled off to the theatre. This time my crib did not get stuck on the tops of the doorframes, as it did the last time I went into theatre. We all had a chuckle about that going down the long passages to theatre. Again my Dad led the way opening doors and moving obstacles out the way, while Dr Louw (the anaesthetist) and two theatre nurses navigated my crib and all its peripheral equipment, such as oxygen bottles, monitors, etc.

Mom and Dad bid me farewell at the theatre entrance, and off I went. It wasn’t long before I was under anaesthetic, so I cannot report on what happened then. About four hours later I exited the theatre bearing good news.

During this, my second embolisation, Prof Fourie managed to close off a further five large pedicles! This is such extremely good news, with the total number of pedicles closed off now totalling nine. He had a long discussion with my Mom and Dad after the procedure and explained that 27ml of contrast was used during the procedure. One of the catheters did discharge superglue in a neck artery, which wasn’t intended, but also not a bad thing, as it does stave off some of the high blood pressure going to my head.

Prof Fourie additionally confirmed that I will, without a doubt, need to undergo a further procedure once I’m six months old, as originally planned. This procedure will be somewhat more complex than the last two procedures, and will involving coiling in the fistula, but I will provide more info on this once I’ve done more research.

Again, thank you to everyone who prayed so hard for me this morning, and for those of you who dispatched hosts of angles and guardians to watch over me and my medical team. Thank you for all your wonderful emails and SMS’s, as the comments on the blog are only a small sample of all the comforting messages of strength all of you continually send to my Mom and Dad.

I will chat again soon.

Love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 On arriving at Unitas I discovered that my fellow patients had not learnt the art of partying, so I introduced them to some heavy binge drinking and this photo is the evidence thereof

Figure 2 Post party hang-over from too much lactose

Tags: Dad, embolisation, Mom