Just days from now Gabe will be 2! We can hardly believe it.
I remember meeting with his neurosurgeon before he was
born. At the time he explained to us our baby would likely need a shunt to help manage his hydrocephalus. When Gabe was born they decided to hold off
on the shunt when doing his initial back closure. There were many tense days in the hospital
where they monitored his head circumference.
Measurements were taken at each feeding to see if there was a
significant risk and reason to proceed with the shunt surgery. After a month in the hospital we were sent
home with a tape measure and our adorable little “mega mind” for more
monitoring.
When he saw him for the first time, our thorough
pediatrician wrote a pop up note on our electronic file that he would
personally like to measure his head each time Gabe was in the office for any
reason. A shunt seemed inevitable.
We returned to HDV often for ultrasound, CT, and MRI scans
of Gabe’s brain to carefully measure the percentage of fluid versus brain
growth. We held our breath. We prayed for miracles. With each visit to neuro our Dr. would weigh
the pros and cons. He seemed to wrestle
with himself, and the options, just below his breath, in the octave where we
could sense the hesitation in his thought process even if we didn’t hear it in his statements.
“let’s wait just 3
more weeks to decide”
“repeat”
“hmmm…3 more weeks”
“well, I guess I want to revisit this in another month”
“let’s check him again in
2 months”
“the next appointment will be critical. If there is ventricle growth in his CT scan
we will proceed with a shunt.” {note: This is when we took him to Boston for a 2nd
opinion and a discussion about proceeding with ETV/CPC instead}
“if he makes it
safely to 1 year he will likely be okay without a shunt”
"see you in 3 months"
“well, if he doesn’t need
intervention by the time he is 2 the chance he will ever need a shunt is about
0%!”
"schedule a 6 month check up"
We recognize the amazing medical
advances in shunts allowing doctors to save the lives of children with Spina
Bifida. Along the way we somewhat
accepted the idea that Gabe might eventually need intervention. But, this week we
are relieved, thankful, and thrilled to finally say...
We have a SHUNT FREE 2 year
old!
