Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Original Blog Post: January 18, 2009- Surgery Tomorrow

Caedmon is slated for surgery sometime tomorrow.  I hate the 'sometime' surgery schedule because it means no eating from early morning and no idea of when he'll actually get in.  We are praying that he will be one of the first in this time.  He went without eating through half of today because they weren't sure they wanted to do surgery today or tomorrow. 
Why?
Last night his head started leaking fluid, a lot of fluid, and he started breathing in a gaspy sort of way.  The breathing is a sign of increase in hyrdocephalus and is one of the things they tell us to look out for.  So, the nurse called the doctor who then ordered another CT first thing this morning.  The CT showed the ventricles have increased in size, which is good because it tells us why his stitch area started leaking, too much pressure.  However, Caedmon is still holding steady so there was not a rush to get him into the OR. 
I'm sure you can guess how totally draining and exhausting it is to be in the hospital for days on end.  We have no idea when Caedmon might be released, it all depends on how his body responds to the latest shunt placement.  We are hoping for good healing this time.  He did not have any infection so there should be no reason to keep him any longer then normally necessary for shunt surgery, a few days.
Adam and I are like the walking dead passing in the morning as we switch places and head to our respective child-caring place.  We are grateful for cell phones so we can have some communication throughout the day.  The phone in the hospital room doesn't reach to the side of the bed where the rocking chair is so it's nearly impossible to talk while in the room unless you happen to catch the person just as they laid Caedmon down on the bed.  Crazy!  What a crazy life this is.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that we're actually one of the lucky ones.  We've met families in with children who have lived there for months!  We think a couple weeks is bad!
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