Trying out something new.

I'm sorry if this is short, but I need to finish getting things together and get some sleep.

Long story short, the MRI today showed Tyler's ventricles are not back to his baseline. Really they are just as big as they were 2 weeks ago when we had the last MRI. His head has also grown a full centimeter and the fontanel that was almost closed is rather big again. Tyler also has a bump underneath the incision that keeps getting bigger and is not soft and squishy anymore. In short his head is bigger than anyone one likes it to be. Add to this, he's still having bad days where he won't eat or drink and like today vomits inexplicably.

So for the new part. Instead of rushing him down to the emergency room to be admitted and on a pending list for unscheduled surgery, we went home tonight to pack a bag. Tomorrow at 4am we start a leisurely trip up to Lebanon for a 630am check in at a desk. WOW. I had to ask were this desk was. He will be in surgery around 730am.

The first thing they will do after he's asleep is tap the bump and get a quick culture. While the culture is doing it's thing they will finish prepping him. Once they get the quick culture back (about 30 mins, which is about the time it takes to clean his head properly for surgery) they will decide what needs to be done. If the culture is negative he gets a new shunt installed in a different place and the old hole will be packed shut so the bone can heal over. This option will get us home Saturday. If the culture is positive then they have to take all parts of the shunt out, install an external drain, and hit him with large doses of antibiotics. If it goes this way he'll be in the hospital a while.

We will update through out tomorrow. Once we know what is happening we will also give a better explanation as to what has been done. If this wasn't enough today, Rachel has a 103 degree temp and looks like she feels rotten despite her reassurances from the couch she is ok. But she is happy with her dog Zoey at Grandma and Grandpa's. It's funny, she told Grandma that Tyler would be in the hospital for a couple of days this morning before we knew it. Hmmmm.