pseudotumor cerebri entry 7

Another week down since the last entry and whats happened.
nothing and lots :)
nothing for 4 days really - a weekend soaked up two of those days, we didn't expect anyone on the day (friday) they said, lay flat until further notice. We did expect someone on the monday, but no.. so finally on the tuesday a registrar came in... tried to tell us "you're on the bottom end of normal" for her pressure.  Yeah Right!
then said the shunt she had worked for 9 out of 10 people (but clearly it didn't for her, so by definition, thats not normal isn't it?)  Grrrrr  (At this point, I contacted our private health insurance and got forms to apply for private health care as it seemed we weren't being taken seriously at all.  Its  going to take 5 working days min to get those forms processed, and she'll have her surgery done publically before this - ah well)
Then they noticed her 'pick' line was looking kind of infected (it'd been in 5 weeks) so they had to take that out - fair enough.  but no immediate canular was put in, so back to subcut injections and oral meds (including antibiotic for the infection)  Unfortunately, her pain worsed, which triggered more vomitting, which made the pain worse, which..... etc etc
In any case, that was tuesday -
Wednesday, after a few attempts at getting a line into her (she does have terrible veins, and is very dehydrated), they finally got a new pick line in late in the evening.  She was also told that she was number 2 on the elective list for thursday.  yay!!  she could still be bumped (its happened before for 4 days in a row when she got the first shunt in) but being on the list was a good feeling.
Thursday - whoops - seems we don't have any shunts in stock and need to source one from Auckland (or at least the ordered one hadn't arrived!)  bump!  Friday's list now.  sigh!  (and this time it'll be a proper valve shunt, not the (seemingly) experimental thing they put in there ther first time around)
finally saw the actual consultant, not a good feeling coming from him at all.  reading between the lines, he's indicating that this procedure was our last chance and my wife really should talk to his shrink about stuff.  My wife agrees just ot keep the peace - the shrink shows up, has a chat, seems quite nice.  has the wrong idea about why he's even there - soon gets his facts corrected and says, things look fine - maybe a follow up next week if she's still an inpatient.
I guess the consultant was kinda right - it is a last chance - but for him, not us.  They need to get this right or we're outta there and into private where we'll be dealling with facts and not speculation and innuendo and made to question our own sanity and perceptions of reality all the time.
Of course, underlying in all of this, is my wife, waiting in daily pain, that becomes extreme pain whenever she stands up, uses the toilet, showers etc.  It really is wearing both her and the family support team down bit by bit.  Its hard not to get angry at the system, the doctors, and at times, each other as frustrations boil over.  We're hanging in there, but I fear if she doesn't get her surgery tomorrow and has to wait for another weekend, something will give and it'll be a miserable weekend of trying to keep it together and not explode.