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Show 170 f newest version produced by the company. It is normally used to drain fluid from the brain of a person having hydrocephalus, he explains. "Kids don't even seem capable of destroying this," he adds, chuckling, evidently seeing a vision of some known rambunctious child in his own mind. "And you know how active kids can be." I am stretching out my legs and my hands for the first time in weeks, admiring the process. Basking in the calmness of my muscles. "I am concerned, though," he is continuing and I am wondering what could cause this casual man any concern. "The old catheter apparently had broken off at the dura," he begins. The dura is the tissue-thin covering of the spinal cord. It holds in the fluid. It is this tissue that has been perforated at every spinal tap, at every Baclofen injection test, at every reinsertion of every new catheter. "I couldn't find the end of it that's still in the intrathecal space." The intrathecal space is one of the many layers of the dura. It is where the spinal fluid washes together with the Baclofen. He is saying that he did not want to dig around within the dura to find it because of potential negative complications. "What does this mean?" I am wanting to know. "It means you might have a leak." He is looking somber. The open catheter could act as a siphon if it has not retracted fully into the intrathecal space. He is brightening. "But maybe it has withdrawn completely into the dura, the dura has healed, and it won't leak. We'll see how it goes." |