Our son had his surgery today. Poor guy had to stop breastfeeding 4 hours before his procedure…only to have the procedure delayed by 3 and a half hours. He was not happy, that’s for sure…and we were nervous wrecks (especially me).
They had to take out the External Ventricular Drain (EVD) from the top of his head and replace it with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt, which is basically a valve with a reservoir and a tube leading from his brain into his stomach. This is in order to extract fluid from his brain that would build up in his ventricles if the shunt weren’t in place. This is a process that most people’s brains automatically do. His official diagnosis is hydrocephalus caused by a Vitamin K deficiency.
The craziest part of all this is that his condition has no cure…it is just controlled, but almost all people who have had it controlled lead normal healthy lives. 60 years ago, we would have lost our precious little man.
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| This is what could happen if hydrocephalus goes untreated. It makes me tear up seeing this poor child. |
He has been in a lot of pain since the surgery, and us being the natural minded people that we are, have a lot of hesitancy in administering heavy pain relieving drugs such as morphine and phentanol (or however you spell it). But we also can’t bear to see our little tiny guy in such extreme pain. This is where we think medicinal narcotics have their place. Yet it is still a tough thing for us to do.
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| Click the pic if you want to learn more about hydrocephalus. |
I spent much of the day getting shots for a video that I am preparing for the song we wrote for little Mr. Dunlevy. The working is keeping me sane…when I am settled enough to actually do it.
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| Our little guy wasn't feeling too good after his surgery. |
If all goes well overnight and tomorrow…we could be out of here by tomorrow evening. Man I hope so…we all are ready for our lives to be back to somewhat normal. Have I mentioned that already?
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