3rd times a charm, Right?

Today I took Tyler up to Lebanon because the last couple of days he's been acting a little off. Kinda looks drunk when he walks. He's been very clumsy and tripping over everything. All very subtle and we were having a hard time justifying bringing him up to Lebanon. He has had a bit of a runny nose and a lot of wheezing (which I think is allergies). We weren't sure if he wobbled because he has fluid in his ears or if it was a neurological thing. But I decided after last weeks MRI, we should go there first this time.

After a long 2 hour drive of listening to Tyler say "mommy" in various tones and volumes and having to answer "Tyler" back, we had a quick MRI. You know you have had a lot of MRI's when techs who are not working the machine we had today came out to say "hi, Is Tyler ok?". Tyler wasn't interested in saying "hi", all he wanted to do was leave. He knows the techs on site when they come to bring him back to start fussing. I think the worst part for him is the sticky ear muffs they put on him. That is the only time he cries is when those are put on and then pulled off. They are very sticky and probably hurt like a high quality band-aid and pull hair. Once he got into the bore, he settled down and patiently waited for the 5 minutes of scans to be complete. Then upstairs to the play room for a bit while we wait for the surgeon.

We met with the surgeon and looked at his MRI together. I believed I saw her frown today for the first time. The shunt has taken too much fluid out. His right ventricle (it's were the catheter is) has almost completely shrunk down to collapse. The brain matter is also collapsed with it and the fluid that is now on the outside of the brain is being sucked into the middle too. Good news, no hemorrhaging or areas that look like they have bleed. Bad news, surgery tomorrow for another shunt revision. She is going to put a different size valve onto the existing catheter. This new valve will take out less fluid and allow the ventricle to become plump. You want plump ventricles with a shunt. If the ventricles are too small, the shunt tends to malfunction a lot, too large and you start having symptoms of hydrocephalus.

So, surgery tomorrow for the 3rd time in so many months.