As the kids were staying with friends, I was able to get to the hospital early to meet the doctors doing the rounds. Three teams (neurosurgery, neurology, oncology) met with Maria at different times, conducted their own physical assessments with slightly different views on what may be the cause of her new symptoms. What they agreed on is that this is somewhat of an atypical situation.
Unfortunately the rest of the day only involved waiting around with an x-ray taken of Maria's back/spine around 2:30pm.
It wasn't until I became more assertive (felt like I was back in Israel) later in the afternoon because of a lack of action (a little contrary to discussions earlier in the day) that I established: (i) we weren't going to receive any feedback on the x-ray today; (ii) there would be no MRI(s) conducted today; and (iii) Maria won't be seen by anyone until the morning.
Had this been communicated earlier, then I could have collected the kids from school (Gabi is a stickler for routine as is always especially affected when Maria is hospitalised) and arranged for them to see Maria. They miss her greatly and by the time they see her (after school tomorrow) more than two-and-a-half days would have passed.
I have a lot of questions to ask the specialists in the morning. I'm hoping that unlike today, I can elicit some more answers and a timetable or plan of some description. I (with no medical background) have a potential line of enquiry given these symptoms and will be seeking their feedback and perhaps investigation in that direction if they have nothing more plausible to offer themselves. I briefly (and humbly) shared my view with Maria's neurosurgeon when passing him in a hallway today, to which he responded that it is certainly possible and shouldn't be discounted.
My final frustration is that there is no clear indication as to how long Maria may need to remain in hospital. Their view is that they won't release her until they can get to the bottom of the situation and an MRI is probably going to be the best mechanism to achieve this. I agree, but am trying to take it a step further to have the action taken (i.e. do the MRI). I appreciate Maria is not the only patient in the hospital, nor is she the only urgent case. However, each day of delay means "to me" that there is no resolution (with flow-on effects for us as a family or Maria's status). That resolution (from a medical perspective) could simply rule out anything critical, which would allow the bed to be freed up for a more serious/urgent case.
At this stage they notionally have her admitted until the 24th. If this is the case, the family holiday I booked for next week (which isn't looking great now anyway) will need to be deferred. The kids were looking forward to a week out of school.
Our prayer is that the doctors will have the wisdom, discernment and a spirit of cooperation as they try to get to the bottom of this situation.
