A Summary of 2007 (so far)

It has been an incredibly insane year. It feels like is should be half over.

December 29, 2006 is pertinent enough to add to this summary, so I will. We headed to Iowa to cast Grant's clubfeet, and we took all the kids to spend a little time as a family. The oldest ended up going to the ER that Friday night because she sprained her ankle. We thought it was broken, and so did they until the x-rays showed no broken bones. Whew. But stressful! The rest of the weekend was great.

January 5, 2007 was another trip to Iowa for change of casts. We are seeing great progress. I'm a bit worried about Grant's behavior, though, and I've put in a call to the neurosurgeon. Wait and see.

January 12, 2007 was my mother's birthday. She was heading out of town, and we were supposed to head back to Iowa for a cast change. Change of plans due to a CT scan showing an odd, "cystic" area along his shunt tract. Grant had a shunt revision that revealed his ventricular catheter was completely blocked. For some reason, though, the fluid didn't accumulate in the ventricles but along the shunt tract, causing many comments on the unusual presentation of malfunction. We skipped Iowa. We headed home on the 14th.

I was very pissed at the nurse practitioner's dismissal of my concerns when I called on the 10th (her instincts told HER that his symptoms weren't shunt related), but it sucked to be validated, too.

January 19, 2007 we were back in Iowa for a cast change. We were concerned with the appearance with Grant's shunt area. It was very swollen, we had returned to have it looked at on the Tuesday before we headed to Iowa. The CT looked good, but the ortho liked the appearance of the swelling about as much as we did.

Then I got sick, and I was really sick. I was still worried about Grant's incision site being so swollen, and when I went to the doctor, I had her look at him, too. Wait and see.

January 26, 2007 we were in Iowa again. This time for tenotomies that were performed in the office. He had casts put on, and we were to have a three week break from travel.

I was still worried about the appearance of his incision area, and it seemed like it was becoming bigger. Phone calls made. Appoinment set for January 31.

January 29, 2007 was my father-in-law's birthday. The big 50! At 3 am in the morning, though, hubby and I were headed to the ER in Minnesota. Grant's incision started leaking, and he had vomited earlier.

January 30, 2007 was my oldest's 8th birthday. I was devastated to be gone. Grant had a shunt revision, and his ventricular catheter was blocked due to the gel that had been used to seal his dura expanding. It's something they've never had happen before. Lucky Grant. :( They'll no longer use that gel on him.

January 31, 2007 we thought we were leaving, but Grant vomited and started having severe diarrhea. We decided to stay and that night his incision began leaking again. The NS came in, reinforced the stitches (heartbreaking cries), and figured we'd probably be taking the shunt out. There was no leakage in the morning, though, and we went home February 2.

February 4, 2007 we returned to the ER. On Saturday morning, a day after being released, I noticed some leaking, put a call in, and was told to try and wait it out until Monday. No such luck. It started leaking a bunch on Sunday, so we headed to the ER. It was hubby's Grandpa's birthday and the Super Bowl. We didn't get to see Grandpa, but the Superbowl was on in the ER room. Yea. Way too many pokes for my baby. :(

February 5, 2007 was a shunt replacement. The old shunt valve and catheters were removed, and a new system was placed in a different spot. Surgery was longer, and recovery was really, really rough. There was an abdominal incision to go along with the head incisions, and Grant seemed so sore and uncomfortable. We went home on the 8th.

February 14, 2007 ended up being a pretty sucky Valentine's day. We headed to the ER on the 13th because of symptoms and leaking he started having over the weekend. His new shunt already needed a new revision. We came home on the 16th. His casts were taken off the 15th. We were scheduled to have that done on the 16th, but we couldn't make the trip to Iowa.

We're home now, and I hope we have no more revisions/replacements, etc. He has a few things going on, but I'll detail those later.