We arrived at Mass General around 12:30 today – a huge thank you to TJ for driving us down here. ❤

Rachel needed an MRI before seeing the surgeon, appointment for MRI was at 1:30. They had a hard time getting a vein for the IV contrast and she didn’t get done with the MRI until nearly 4, then off to see the surgeon.

The surgeon had been planning to send her for surgery tomorrow, but her incision appears to finally be starting to heal and the drainage isn’t as bad as it was over the weekend. The surgeon thought it looked pretty good at the moment and there are still no signs of infection, so he just put some skin adhesive and steri-strips and a new dressing over it and said he wanted to keep an eye on it overnight and reassess in the morning. If the drainage continues to get better she’ll just stay in the hospital a few days to be monitored. If it gets worse again she’ll have surgery. They also put her on IV fluids because she’s been feeling weak and dizzy, probably from dehydration from all the fluid loss

The MRI showed a collection of fluid, as expected, since there’s a void in her back where they removed parts of her spine back in September. Nothing looked alarming on the scans. The lab results from last Thursday finally came back – there is spinal fluid leaking, but the surgeon will take the same approach as in September – as long as she’s stable with no symptoms he won’t do anything, unless he has to do surgery anyway because of increased drainage.

She’s in the same room as last time she was here – but the bed with the view: