OK, so the good news is that SO FAR it doesn't appear to be a shunt infection. We are guessing this at this point upon her blood work with her white blood cell count and CRP (inflammation) numbers and that she hasn't had a fever. To be on the safe side neuro just came by and tapped her shunt to get some spinal fluid to test for infection. This takes a few hours to get results.
When he tapped her shunt he was able to determine that her shunt in the brain is not blocked and is working well. What they do know right now according to her images, is that the catheter in her abdomen (where the fluid drains through from her shunt) is clogged with debris. Now, they aren't 100% sure where the debris is from and if the fluid build up is CSF or from something else. She has had her colostomy plus the three abdominal shunt insertions, so there has been a lot of activity inside her abdomen, so it may be too much for her body for the shunt to drain here.
The shunt that Lauren has right now is a VP shunt. the "V" is for the part that starts in her brain and the "P" for the part where it drains into her abdomen. There are other areas that the shunt can safely drain to. Right now Lauren is scheduled for surgery late tomorrow morning where neuro and pediatric surgery will investigate the problem in greater detail and fix her shunt.
More than likely, (not absolute) they will drain her shunt to a new area into her heart chamber to drain. This is called a Ventriculo-Atrial (VA) Shunt - Type of shunt where the distal catheter tip lies in the right atrium of the heart. This allows the CSF (spinal fluid) to enter the bloodstream directly. So, the actual shunt in her brain will remain, but a new catheter will be hooked up and placed to a new area.
Lauren's recovery should be pretty good. Typically shunt revisions have a 24-48 hour recovery time with 48-72 hours of post surgery antibiotics. I am not sure if they will treat her any differently, I'll find out much more tomorrow afternoon/evening probably.
Now, this is all still up in the air, especially since we haven't received the results from her spinal fluid yet. If this is infected, then we will have to go through the old external shunt process again....
Lauren has been doing OK. She really is an easy going calm baby, but has cried a few times today. I would imagine that she has a head ache from the extra pressure in her head (neuro by the way took some out to relieve the pressure). She did just throw up all over her mommy (good thing I had an extra shirt and soap in my bag). Each time her shunt acts up she gets sick, so this is a normal reaction. The good news is that she is able to rest well.
This has most definitely been a very trying and emotional night and day for us, but we are moving forward with optimism and trust that God has Lauren wrapped up in his palm to get her healed and recovered as soon as possible so she can go home to her family. I feel devastated, but feel even more so for my two big girls at home that were extremely ecstatic about Lauren coming home, and who after their daddy told them she was going to have to stay longer, didn't believe him and went to school completely convinced that he was trying to trick them, even after insisting he wasn't. So, I just pray that they take her news good and have patience with all of this.
I will most definitely keep the blog updated with information as I receive it. Thanks for the outpouring of prayers, we gladly except them:)
PS Happy 8 weeks to Lauren!!!
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