August 16, 2011

So Sam kept getting worse instead of better. We finally brought her into the Emergency Department last night around midnight. We had called the neurosurgeon on call for the last three nights. Since she was over 72 hours out of surgery and still having problems they had us come on  in. She had not eaten since 1 pm on Monday afternoon with a projectile vomiting episode Monday evening. I had posted on facebook a few weeks ago about shots being one of the worst things for a baby. I take that back... finding an IV on a baby beats that hands down. They finally got an IV in, repeated the chest x-ray and also another MRI. Then another projectile vomiting episode when they tried to give her meds. This time I was the target. (Would be the target for that sweet child any day!) This poor baby has been tortured! Once all this was done around 4 am we started to get some news. There seems to be another pocket of fluid that is in a different location from the areas of the two other shunts. The thing that was concerning was that from Saturday until now that pocket of fluid has increased. Her symptoms are most likely cause by some kind of neurological situation but we are unsure of the exact cause. It could be that her brain is trying to get use to having the second shunt in and this will all blow over in the next few days. It could also be that this new pocket of fluid is growing now that there is room (created by getting rid of the pressure from the 4th ventricle shunt) and it will have to be drained as well. This is yet another brain surgery and the doctor will actually have to go cut through part of the brain to make a passage for the area to drain into one of the other shunt areas. When he came to talk to us tonight you could tell he was troubled by all of this. He said that in some children it seems like they get in these situations where they have these battles and stay in and out of the hospital for long periods of time. It is just so hard to believe that just over a week ago I was going for a check-up with Sam and now we are deep into surgery and trouble. The thing that breaks my heart the most is the amount of pain she has been in the last few days. Most of the last few days she has whimpered, trying to get to sleep with little rest. She has just been miserable. I have not seen that sweet, happy smile out of her in days. This afternoon her IV needed to be changed because it blew up her leg with pressure. They had the transport crew in there from almost 2 hours and they could not get an IV started on her. Please pray that she feels better and that no other surgeries will be needed. If they are, please pray that God will guide the hands of the surgeons and that He will heal Sam's head. So many times when we are in the pits of life we can't understand why we are there..... Sometimes we are not even aware of the purpose years after the troubles are gone. The good news is that God is bigger than all of this and He knows why. I rest in His arms knowing that His plan is perfect. Your prayers cover our family daily, but most of all our sweet Sam. God has special plans for that sweet child!