She was pretty worried she wouldn't be able to lay still for the CT scan. Thankfully, that's over with and it wasn't the much longer MRI. The scan was done today at 2:15 PM. The interesting part of the report says:
Here's the latest little movie.
The quality is low to save bandwidth but if you look at yesterday's movie, you can see noticeable changes that look encouraging.
Here are some more images. This first one is a side by side of the front of the C2 fracture. The first CT scan from the accident is on the left and the same images from today's CT scan on the right. The images are not as clear as I'd like but the obvious black (fracture) is much less visible in today's images.
This is the side view of the same C2 vertebrae with the fractures oriented the same, old on left, new on right. The gap has nearly closed and there is material filling the gap. I'm no doctor (or nurse for that matter as the medical profession likes to remind me) but this looks like substantial bone healing to my untrained eye.
For the final piece, here's the top-down slice that is pretty evident of the damage. You can see that it isn't completely healed but then again that really isn't expected. It just needs to be strong enough to allow the halo to come off and for her to transition to a collar.
Pray the doctor sees it my way! I don't think she can take much more. Her pain is off the chart. She has had as much pain medication now as when she first came home. She just sits in the chair and rocks back and forth in a zombie state. I've given her pain pills as close together as allowed, valium whenever she asks and the time-released pill at 7:30 PM on top of all that. She's got heat packs on her back, shoulder blades and right arm in hopes that will alleviate at least some of the tension and pain. Sunday and yesterday both were bad but not as bad as today.
Jan is in so much pain that she can't stand it. The narcotic pain pills fail to provide significant relief. It dulls it but it isn't knocking it back to a functional level for very long. She thinks it is more muscle spasms than anything but the valium isn't helping as much as it did before. She used to average two a day or less and now she is up to four and five a day without the same level of relief. The prescription says one every six hours but the NP verbally told her she could take two at a time. We haven't resorted to that yet because she resists it. Similar change for the pain pills, too. She used to be down to nothing besides Tylenol and now she's at five or more narcotics a day plus the time-released to sleep.
When she's awake she's been pacing the floor, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest with no relief. I've been helping her put heat on her shoulder blades and at the base of her neck/shoulders, which is nowhere near her injury.
1. Healing changes are evident within the comminuted C2 vertebral fracture with no change in position of alignment since 12/14/2008.
2. Nondisplaced fractures of the anterolateral aspects of the posterior arch of C1 remain unchanged.
Compared to the prior study of 12/14/2008 obtained from Bilkmore, there has been no change in position or alignment, and there is some evidence of healing at the fracture line at the base of the odontoid and within the anterior mass of the Cs vertebra.The part that doesn't sound as good is this part:
There is no significant callus formation.Other than that, I'll post the newest images. I see definite material where there was clearly open space. The part about no significant callus formation is not too troubling because as a healing indicator, that often trails real-world bone healing by a few weeks.
Here's the latest little movie.
The quality is low to save bandwidth but if you look at yesterday's movie, you can see noticeable changes that look encouraging.
Here are some more images. This first one is a side by side of the front of the C2 fracture. The first CT scan from the accident is on the left and the same images from today's CT scan on the right. The images are not as clear as I'd like but the obvious black (fracture) is much less visible in today's images.
This is the side view of the same C2 vertebrae with the fractures oriented the same, old on left, new on right. The gap has nearly closed and there is material filling the gap. I'm no doctor (or nurse for that matter as the medical profession likes to remind me) but this looks like substantial bone healing to my untrained eye.
For the final piece, here's the top-down slice that is pretty evident of the damage. You can see that it isn't completely healed but then again that really isn't expected. It just needs to be strong enough to allow the halo to come off and for her to transition to a collar.Pray the doctor sees it my way! I don't think she can take much more. Her pain is off the chart. She has had as much pain medication now as when she first came home. She just sits in the chair and rocks back and forth in a zombie state. I've given her pain pills as close together as allowed, valium whenever she asks and the time-released pill at 7:30 PM on top of all that. She's got heat packs on her back, shoulder blades and right arm in hopes that will alleviate at least some of the tension and pain. Sunday and yesterday both were bad but not as bad as today.
Jan is in so much pain that she can't stand it. The narcotic pain pills fail to provide significant relief. It dulls it but it isn't knocking it back to a functional level for very long. She thinks it is more muscle spasms than anything but the valium isn't helping as much as it did before. She used to average two a day or less and now she is up to four and five a day without the same level of relief. The prescription says one every six hours but the NP verbally told her she could take two at a time. We haven't resorted to that yet because she resists it. Similar change for the pain pills, too. She used to be down to nothing besides Tylenol and now she's at five or more narcotics a day plus the time-released to sleep.
When she's awake she's been pacing the floor, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest with no relief. I've been helping her put heat on her shoulder blades and at the base of her neck/shoulders, which is nowhere near her injury.
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