Thursday, December 25, 2008

Another Christmas in the Hospital

We were hoping Colby simply had the bug, but around 4pm yesterday, he started throwing up again. We called his neurosurgeon and were told to go to the ER. They did a CAT scan and saw that his ventricles were enlarged again, thus meaning that his shunt was malfunctioning again. Tracey and I stayed with Colby in the ER until around 9pm when I left to go home to get some sleep. Colby went into the OR around 11pm. I got a call from Tracey around 11:30 saying things went well. There was a blockage in the tube that goes into his ventricle which prevented it to drain.
When I woke up this morning I called Tracey to see how Colby was doing. He's been through this surgery a couple times now and has come out pretty well each time. But for some reason it's a bit different this time. He's really fussy and crying a lot. He keeps rubbing his head. I had a quick cup of coffee, fed Hamilton and headed into the hospital to relieve Tracey.
The neurosurgeon came in around 10:30 this morning and is ordering another CAT scan to see what's going on. If all looks well, they may just keep an eye on him or even let him come home today. Or, if things don't look well, he'll have to go into surgery again, maybe even putting a shunt on the other side to drain his right ventricle and offer better overall flow.
I can't say this is how we'd like to spend our Christmas. Tracey and I laughed as we left yesterday to come into the hospital and both said "Merry Christmas!". Next year we'll have a wonderful Christmas AT HOME!! We both say that although it's not fun going through this, we couldn't imagine going through it without each other. That's what the holidays should be about...family.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You surely do have a bond with that family of yours.... I'm not even there and I can't imagine Colby without either of you! You are both doing an amzing job as his parents!