The Shunt. Again.

"Arent you glad it's the shunt and not tumor related?" joked the neurosurgeon. Of course, but come on already!!!!

The MRI following Ty's surgery last week showed that his ventricles were larger - an indication of hydrocephalus that we are all too familiar with. We were told that it was most likely caused by debris from surgery interrupting the CSF flow. Our doc pushed hard on the shunt valve to flush the tubing several times and that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, i guess it was a temporary fix. Yesterday Ty's eyes began to deviate toward the middle. By this morning he was completely cross eyed and keeping his eyes closed most of the time for comfort. We made our way to the hospital and it turns out that "cranial nerve six bilateral palsy" is a very common indicator of increased intracranial pressure and shunt malfunction. Ty just never experienced it before so we had no idea what was going on.

None of Ty's doctors are worried, they all seem to think this is pretty routine and Ty will be perfectly fine after yet another shunt revision. Lou and I are totally paranoid and edgy. Our poor baby just can't ever catch a break! And we can't ever catch our breath. Then we remind each other that it's because he will catch the biggest break of all and beat this in the end.

So... Unexpected surgery tomorrow morning. Not very complicated, we are hoping that the neurosurgeon can fix the shunt by replacing the tubing alone, rather than the entire shunt. We'll see. Hopefully we will be home on Friday. Fingers crossed for that, especially knowing that if we run into the holiday weekend it will get even harder to get discharged on a skeleton staff and we will really be stuck here.

When I left the house today, Lou asked me several times, "are you sure you don't want to bring the overnight bag?". I insisted no, because I thought I would jinx it if I brought a bag. Of course, now I'm stuck buying pj's and deodorant in the gift shop downstairs. It's really my own fault. Lou has my permission to say, "I told you so" as many times as he wants. Well, let me revise that and say up to ten times.

In the meantime, we are getting ready for another night in the hospital. Ty fell asleep a little while ago but before he did he kept saying, "let's get outta here!" over and over again. All i know is I hate this even more than he does. He thought he was going to the toy store during the whole car ride in. When we got to the hospital, he just changed his tune and talked about going to the candy store instead because he did so "gwate (great)" getting his "bwud-werk (blood work)" done. I hate that he is going to wake up here again. I hate that I have to see him off to the OR again tomorrow morning. I wonder what goes through his head at this point. He's been to the OR more than any person should have to in their entire life and he doesn't know if he is going to wake up okay or if he will be on a ventilator with a hundred stitches on his skull. I probably won't sleep a wink tonight knowing how poor Ty will be so nervous in the morning. Actually, knowing Superty he will just grin and bear it as usual while I walk away sobbing. He is seriously so tough.

Please cross your fingers for a simple procedure tomorrow, a quick recovery, and a visible difference in Ty's vision immediately following the surgery. Thank you for your continued love and support. With love from Ty and all of the Campbell's.