Saturday night Jamie and I began to notice that Anderson wasn't using his left arm much...we also noticed that he kept falling over to his left while he was sitting up- even in his highchair...he had also been really fussy, and sleepy. Sunday afternoon I put it all together and told Jamie "His shunt isn't working." He gave me a look and said, "You know, I was thinking the same thing." So we kept watching him...apparently he does not have the normal signs of shunt malfunction, but somehow we both just KNEW that's what was wrong.
I got out the tape measure to do a head measurement and realized quickly that his head has grown 2 cm since our visit with the neurosurgeon on the 24th (one week). I knew this wasn't good and immediately put in a message to the doctor.
The doctor told us to come in through the ER so that we could get the MRI done quickly. Even in a waiting room that was overflowing with sick children, we were taken immediately to a room and had already seen 2 doctors in about 15 minutes of being here.
We had an MRI and a shunt series of xrays. We were told that everything looked pretty good. The last step was a shunt tap to check the fluid....when they tried to tap the shunt, they couldn't get ANY fluid out- which means it isn't working. So...we are having surgery #3 sometime tomorrow. It has been less than 2 months since our last shunt revision, and I can't stand that he is having to go through this again, especially so soon.
I am hoping that we caught it quickly enough this time that only a piece in his head has to be replaced and not the whole thing like last time...please say a little prayer for Anderson tomorrow. Specifically that he will not have as much pain this time as last time and that this shunt will work for longer than a few months.
Thanks for all prayers. They work and mean the world to us.
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