(4th Blog Post by “Bert & I” on Behalf of Hospitalized Ali)

Ali has sure had a rough 24 hours!   😦

Getting her pain medication set correctly has proved to be very challenging and its still undergoing frequent adjustment.

Part of the problem comes down to hospital life in general.

No sooner is Ali resting comfortably than it becomes necessary to turn her to prevent pressure ulcers or to massage her legs to prevent a pulmonary embolism. “No rest for the weary” …

Unfortunately, each time she is physically disturbed, the movement unleashes severe pain.

Meanwhile, Ali is also having difficulty keeping her blood oxygen saturation at normal levels.  So she wears an oxygen mask intermittently throughout the day and night.

Struggling to maintain blood oxygen levels …

On the other hand, her surgical scar is healing well, and neurosurgeon Dr. Liu Yansheng remains highly confident that every surgical objective was accomplished with very minimal damage to peripheral tissues.

On the mend …

And Dr. Liu feels that the past 48 hours have gone pretty much as anticipated, although he plainly regrets it has been so challenging to tame Ali’s high pain levels.

Significantly, it is clear that Ali has lost no functionality as a result of the surgery, which was arguably the major risk.

But it is too early to know for sure that her neuropathic pain has been eliminated, which was unquestionably a major surgical objective. This is simply because the combination of inflammatory pain from the surgery + morphine to control the pain together mask many other sensations.  That said, her brother Mattias, who has been bedside with her round-the-clock, reports that Ali no longer mentions neuropathic pain, rather the acute neck pain triggered whenever her body is moved.

Meanwhile, Ali continues to receive the close attention of her primary physicians as well as Tongren Hospital’s very attentive and professional nursing staff.

Drs. Zhu and Liu and Tan bedside Friday …