Andrea's Zero Hour

Lord, thank you for being with us the whole time when Andrea is not feeling good. Thank you for cuddling our precious angel during the critical hours. Thank you for the gift of life. We all pray for her swift recovery. AMEN. 🙏

#AndreasMilesone

#AndreasZeroHour

#AndreasRoadToRecovery

#AndreaShuntStory 

Her symptoms started when she had an irritated right eye (or so we thought). Her eyes got swollen due to tears. We had it checked by her pedia and she was given a prescription for eye irritation but after a few hours she had an usual episode of bradycardia (her heart rate went down to 40ish). So we rushed her to the hospital on June 3, 2023. She was confined for 6 days but nothing was conclusive. 

Her pedia, Dr. M. Wassmer saw some infection in her blood stream so he started some antibiotics. But she still had some episodes of bradycardia even when she's awake. Her heart was checked by a cardiologist, Dr. Tolentino, and confirmed that her heart is healthy with no signs of any cardiac problems. According to him, her bradycardia is not cardiac in nature but rather central. Her neurologist, Dra. Fojas suspected it was a shunt failure since after she pumped her shunt valve Andrea felt better and her heart rate went up to 100 bpm. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. D. Isabela, checked her shunt valve and said it was functioning. Btw, her shunt valve was also replaced last 2020 due to malfunction. 

Andrea eventually felt better. Her heart rate went back to her normal range. And because she had no other symptoms, no seizure, no fever, no cough, no colds, we went home with no conclusive findings on June 8, 2023. 

Soon after 2 weeks, she had another episode of bradycardia. We observed her, monitored her heart rate and supported her with oxygen. I also had to manually pump her shunt so she would feel better. I already sent a message to Dr. Isabela informing him of her situation. We were scheduled for a checkup after the weekend. 

On June 30, 2023, 7am, she woke up with a smile on her face. She knew we were worried and she tried to feel better. But at 8am, she had a breakthrough seizure for about 5 minutes. Her left hand stiffened and she went pale. Her oxygen went down to 35%, her heart rate went down to 40 bpm. So we increased her O2 to 3 lpm. We tried to wake her up the whole time. After a while, her stats shoot up to her normal range. We called Lifeline 16911 so we could bring her to Makati Medical Center. Since we are in Silang, Cavite, the patient transfer service took an hour to our place. Andrea's state stabilised, and we're able to give her her meds for seizure. 

At 10am, we're already in MMC ER, and her doctors checked her and they had a consensus that this is a shunt malfunction. Dr. Isabela then scheduled her for a VP shunt operation at 4pm. At 6pm, the VP shunt operation started and lasted for an hour and a half. Dr. Isabela went out of the operating room and gave us an update. He said, there was an adhesion on the tip of the abdominal portion on the shunt. This caused her cerebral fluid to stick up on her head and caused a pressure on her brain. They had the existing shunt system removed and replaced with a new one. Andrea tolerated the whole procedure well and stabilised after 2 hours. 

We were transferred to a regular room for observation. Everything seems okay except one thing. She had insomnia for 3 days, as in more than 48 hours of no sleep or even a nap after her operation. The doctors said she is still getting used to her new shunt and to give her some time to adjust. She was given melatonin and benadryl at bedtime to help her sleep but to no avail. I had to put a damp towel on her eyes so she could close her eyes and help her sleep. After the 3rd night she was given a higher dose of melatonin and benadryl, she then was able to get a 3-hour sleep. Her sleeplessness could also be environmental because of the hospital setting. So her doctors agreed to sent us home. 

Due to her operation, we arranged a patient transfer via stretcher thru Lifeline 16911 from hospital to home. On July 4, 2023 at 7:30pm, We were home. After dinner, at 9:30pm, Andrea is sound asleep and on her road to recovery. 🙂

Shout out to our prayer warriors, thank you for praying with us. And please continue to pray for her fast recovery. 🙏🙏🙏