Saturday Morning Surgeries

It looks like we lucked out, again. Our neurosurgeon, who was on holiday when we arrived, returned mid week & happens to be on call today (Saturday). This also happens to be the first day post his 10 day infection-free window. We were sure when we started calculating the date back on Wed., 12 Aug (day 1 of our infection-free window) we wouldn't be back in surgery to internalize the shunt until Mon or Tue. But they surprised us (pleasantly) when they suggested we could do surgery today!

Honestly, even when they suggested the idea last Thu., we were cautiously optimistic just in case something came up ... which almost did ... that we would still have to wait.

And Cole's back to his old self trying to get others to adjust to his schedule and yesterday was no different. Shawn was holding Cole after his CT scan (to provide a baseline picture of his ventricle size and shunt placement for surgery). He noticed that one of the stitches holding in in his external drain was missing. The surgeons place the stitches in the shunt tube and to his head (similar to what they do with the PIC line) to keep it in place. He called in our nurse to confirm what he thought he was seeing, which she did. She went out to call someone from the Neuro team and luckily for us, one of the key members of the team happening to be walking into our Pod (we're truly blessed). She, upon taking a look, found that both of his stitches were missing. That's problematic because [1] we don't know how long they've been broken (although we assume a short period) [2] we don't know if his external drain has now wiggled it's way out of the ventricles, rendering it nearly useless for draining the extra Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF), [3] if it hasn't been draining, how enlarged have his ventricles become.

Sydney (Neuro Team) acted quickly and with Shawn still holding Cole stitched the shunt tube that was exposed on the top of his head while in Shawn's lap, with Shawn holding Cole. Cole (and Shawn) did really well. He didn't cry until near the end, but then was so upset he had a major breath holding spell. It's quite a site to see and now our pediatrician and Sydney have both had the 'pleasure' to be here when one happens. It ended uneventfully (no code blue) and as always he was quite worn out and took a long nap. He woke up in the same good mood he was in when he started the day and was laughing and banging on his piano and tambourine.

Almost all of our Neuro team stopped by several more times that afternoon and early evening checking him (looking for visible clues in his behavior) and checking his drain to confirm it was still running. They decided we could wait until Sat AM to internalize the shunt and our surgeon (who we really adore) gave Cole specific instructions not to have any events in the middle of the night. Luckily for all of us, Cole (and his drain complied).

So he's off in the caring hands of our anesthesiologist, nurses, and surgeon and as we said a prayer last night for Cole we also asked that those involved might be alert and skilled as they proceed with this procedure this morning. We hold faith that we'll see them all soon and he'll be laughing with us again soon (although that hair make take a little longer to refill in (in those spots). And we'll keep you all informed as soon as we hear anything.

Thanks as always for your prayers and constant support.