Home Sweet Home

We are home. We finally got into the MRI around 2pm. He wasn't thrilled with it but dealt with it like a champ. Only a few tears and held my thumb like it would fall off. 3 scans total. Two 30 second scans and one 50 second scan. I think we were in the bore for less than 4 minutes. Back up to the pedi floor and straight to "RIDE". I believe Ben and I walked close to 4 miles in a space that is about 100 yards long. He's smiling and giggling the whole time. It was good that we were able to keep him happy. There was a wagon, red Flintstone like car, and another push car he took turns playing in. The Flintstone car has one side with a working door. Tyler preferred to get in and out of the side where the door doesn't open. By the end of the day, he wanted to play "Dukes of Hazards" by sliding into the Flintstone car through the back window. He really did entertain the staff on the pedi floor today.

Tyler's head is ok. He did hit the floor hard enough to cause a small subdural hemorrhage, a bleed between the skull and the brain matter. Yes, this kid knows how to make his brain bleed. It is very small and there seems to be no new brain damage. We stayed in the hospital long enough to make sure the bleed clotted off and wasn't getting any bigger. Having a shunt makes a normal head injury a little more tricky. We also had to make sure the shunt wasn't draining too much fluid that the damage area would be made worst. His neurosurgeon was very happy to see him run around the floor and talk up a flirty storm. So as long as (knock on wood now) he doesn't have any new symptoms pop up over the next couple of weeks we can wait til June to see Neurosurgery again. We have a routine RSV shot in 2 weeks, where we will do an informal 2 week check. If the Neonatalogist has any concerns then about his head she will refer us back up to Lebanon.

For now, we are to keep him quiet and calm. He has doctor orders not to let anything bang his head for a while. Not just for the obvious, but because his head needs to heal. We've moved his high chair basically into a corner making it incredibly difficult for it to fall. Tyler was so excited to be home he raced from one activity to the next with no regard to his head. My favorites were trying to push the high chair over again but it was in the corner and banging his plate repeatedly over his head. Any one have a bubble ball for toddlers?