Grace's Surgery

Peek-A-Boo in the hospital bed.

Grace's surgery went really well last week. The doctor was able to remove the shunt on the left side of her head and place a new one on the right side. She slept most of the day Wednesday as the anesthesia wore off, but perked back up Thursday and we were sent home around noon.

She now has two semicircle-shaped incisions on her head, one on each side, with a strip of red hair down the middle. We have talked about shaving off that strip of hair, but we decided to just leave it alone and even everything out as it grows. She also has an incision on her belly that they used to guide the tube that goes from her shunt into her abdomen.

Left Side - the red marks are tape burns

Right Side - where the shunt is now. A bit blurry because she won't sit still :)

Once we were home, Grace had some tummy troubles (a common side effect from all the antibiotics) and was just unhappy in general. She wanted to be held constantly and wasn't sleeping at all. So Monday we went in for a CT scan to see if there was a problem. Everything was fine with the shunt, but Grace wasn't dealing well with the changes in pressure in her head so the doctor turned the shunt down. The hope is that if the fluid drains slower it will be easier for her to adjust. Her mood is much better, but she still isn't sleeping. Which means mommy isn't sleeping. It's like revisiting her colicky first few months - something I never wanted to do! She went to sleep around 2:30 last night (this morning?) which is an improvement, so hopefully we're on the upswing. Until then, forgive my non-existent blog posts and please don't visit my home, it's a total wreck. Now I'm off to find a clean cup to drown myself in coffee...