Wait long enough....

Colby's back up in his room and recovering well from his latest surgery. The neurosurgeon went in and looked at the bottom of his brain where he had done a third ventricalostomy exactly one year ago today. A third ventricalsotomy is where they go down through the ventricles (there's three of them, the first is highest, the second is in the middle and the third is the one towards the bottom of the brain.) and cut a small hole through the floor of the third ventricle to allow excess cerebral fluid to drain out of the brain. His third ventricalostomy was unsuccessful last year, though we never knew why, which lead to his shunt placement last February. The surgery today allowed the doctor to go back in endoscopically and view the bottom of Colby's brain. The membrane that they cut the hole through last year had grown over. There is an artery that runs just underneath this area and adds a great deal of risk to any surgery that's done. The doctor said that there was a lot of scar tissue in the area and wasn't comfortable trying to force through the membrane in the event they damaged the artery. So he backed out, placed a cerebral catheter in the right hemisphere of Colby's brain and took out the one that he's had in the left. He then connected the catheter to the tube already in place to drain down just under the skin of the left side of Colby's body and empties down in Colby's belly.
When I first went down to the PICU recovery room, Colby was somewhat alert, but still out of it. As he recovered, he showed us all his stubby-toothed smile and babbled a bit as if to say "That did it!". As we came back up into his room, the anesthesia continued to wear off and he became more and more like his old self. I showed him his pictures on the blog and he chuckled and grabbed at the computer. It felt SOOOOOOO good to see him more like himself. He continues to have bouts of crying, but I have to think that's to be expected. in the last two days, he's had two surgeries on his head, a new hole drilled in his skull, pricks, needles and tubes in just about every arm and leg and hasn't had much good sleep. So he's entitled to be a bit cranky.
I really hope that this is the end of his latest challenge and that in the days to come, he rebounds to his laughing, babbling....drooling self. It just goes to show that you simply need to wait and stick through the toughest of times to be able to enjoy the sweetest of moments.
Tracey has been gone all day, getting some rest and seeing her family for a couple hours. She and Evan are coming in any minute now with some presents and food and we'll have as "normal" of a Christmas as we can.