Rachel is still in good spirits, but tired of being at the hospital ...

All the nurses have fallen in love with Rachel and her sweet personality.  She is doing well, especially considering how active she likes to be and the fact that she can't get out of bed and run around because of the CSF drain.

They initially were draining off 20 cc of CSF every hour.  They dropped that down to 15 and also started adjusting the height of the drain outlet relative to her body so they could slowly but continually drain off 15 cc per hour rather than draining it down all at once each hour.

Today (Saturday) she had some CSF in her bandages around the incision, so they are going to increase the target drainage output from 15 to 17 cc per hour.

Also, Dr. Mapstone mentioned a couple days ago that they want to do a pressure study wherein they monitor and record her internal CSF pressures over time.  That will require her spending a day in ICU.  We are guessing that might happen Monday or Tuesday.

Yesterday (Friday) morning, Sarah's brother Michael was sitting with Rachel while Sarah and Steve were transitioning a switch in responsibilities for the day (Sarah going Stillwater, Steve staying at the hospital).  Rachel had a dirty diaper that got her pants dirty.  After Michael changed her diaper and started to put clean pants on her, Rachel started screaming "buckey, buckey" and pointing at her diaper.  Finally, frustrated by Rachel's persistent and loud exclamations, Michael called Sarah for an interpretation of what "buckey" might mean.  Sarah informed Michael that "buckey" means "pockets".  Rachel sometimes fusses over wanting to wear pants with pockets.

Later in the day, she decided to take off her pink shorts (with pockets) and wear them on her head: