Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Surgery is Complete

Surgery was complete by 11:00am. The shunt was removed and it came out easy. There was concern that it would not because of his venticles, but it came out with out a problem. They did leave part of it in the chest because that would had been another surgery in itself. Cutting his chest open. That should not cause him any problems though.
When the Dr. came out to speak with me he brought the shunt out to us in a bottle, haha. Exactly what Wesley wanted. Here it is!!

My first thoughts were, "thats all it is"!! HAHA.
Here is Wesley before surgery, he was ready.

The plan now is: a Ct-Scan will be ran in the morning to check the fluid and brain swelling. If everything looks good then there is a HIGH chance that he will be able to live without the shunt. There is a small chance that things could go south in the weeks to come but that is a very small chance.
Breanna is really missing her daddy at home. She is a daddy's girl. She cried last night about him leaving and then has had a rough day. She talked to him tonight so I hope that helps.
So as of 7:30 things are going well. He is just very sore. The Dr. did put a metal plate in where the shunt hole was.

To explain a little bit of what the Dr.'s think has happen. Wesley has Chiari Malformation which caused all his problems. He had surgery for that to help the problems, because there is no cure. After the surgery he had a CSF fluid leak (rare complication) he got menigaitis. It went to his brain, and his body started mass producing CSF fluid, which his brain starting swelling. A shunt was put in. Two Years later the shunt is causing even more issues. His body is fighting if off, so the Dr. felt like removing it would be the best plan. They believe the menigaitis was the only reason why he needed the shunt. So here we are. He can live without, he should be a lot better.
Wesley will always have Chiari and will have problems with it, but should not be constant. Hopefully the Chiari never gets bad again and would need another surgery. But, with Chiari you never know until it happens. Does that make some sense? Ugh, so confusing.
Kyra is starting to have some issues with choking, another problem when Chiari starts to get worse. Hopefully thats not the case. Whenever we do her yearly check, we are going to the Austin Dr. with her. Well thats it for now. I will update tomorrow, I have got to try and get some work done. I took the day off :)
Thank you all so much for your prayers.
:)

2 comments:

aWk said...

PRAISE THE LORD THE SURGERY WENT WELL! Keep us update on the CT Scan!

Amanda said...

I am SOOOOO glad he is doing well. I thought about you guys and prayed while I was sitting here in the NICU with Owen. Keep us posted as you can. Do not stress over it, I know how hard it is. I am praying this brings the relief he needs and deserves.