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Show 201 pulling back in the least as it is inserted into the intrathecal space, about even their slightest tremor causing ripping of the dura. I am also thinking about all those spinal Baclofen injections, the invented protocol, each one puncturing the dura. It is perhaps teaching hospital systems and attitudes that are more responsible for this than individuals, I am thinking. I remember the time that Lisa, the nurse who stayed with me during at least one catheter-replacement surgery ("so they can't deny it's broken"), reported to me that the attending surgeon had never even stepped his foot through the door while the resident - or was it an intern? - placed his first intrathecal catheter into my unconscious and unsuspecting body. "There are two of you," I tell Dr. Chappie She has suddenly dropped her smile and is looking hard into my eyes. "And you echo when you talk," I add. "You've just had extensive neurosurgery," she is saying, "and you are probably lacking lots of spinal fluid." Her reassurance is somewhat calming. I am to stay flat on my back once again. Do I get Coke too? I am wondering. Dr. Chappie takes her twin and her echo and leaves the room. I am neither too stiff nor too flaccid. Do I dare hope for success this time? I am wondering, as I fall asleep. |