Alrighty then...

Yeppir...we had us some fun ladies and gentlemen!!

Thanks to Single Dad for his fab guest post! And yes...of course he had my "permission" to hijack my blog and fool around. Always fun when a man fools around with a woman's blog. **cough**

ANYWAY....

Sophie, after having had a perfectly fine Wednesday, woke up to a perfectly awful Thursday. She was nauseaus, fussy, lethargic...and the swelling started to appear around her eyes again. Shit. Well, I got everything ready and events transpired in my favour which allowed me to take her, finally, via ambulance to the hospital...rather than drive her by van...and THAT was awesome, smooth, comfy, almost...and efficient. I had my "sheet" ready, handed it to the very handsome EMS guys (what IS it with EMS guys? Yikes...). The one guy filled out the forms en route, phoned it all in to the usually hateful triage nurse, and we sailed into a cot in emerg right away. Handed the sheet to the bedside nurse...zippity zip...3PM...called up to the neuro floor on my cell, kid's father talked to the neurosurgeon's nurse clinician, she was down within 20 minutes, the neurosurgeon herself within 60, and bang!!! CT scan, shunt series x-ray, then surgery by 6PM. The neurosurgeon couldn't even stand to wait for a porter to "drive" us to the OR. She did it herself. Hates to wait that one. She wasn't our usual surgeon...she is "the other one"...awesome, Swiss born and trained, with a nice French accent (yes, they also speak FRENCH in Switzerland lovelies). She is all business and told us it was time for a full shunt replacement.

Sophie had been too often to emerg. lately for shunt issues. It appeared that the thing had begun "plaquing". Little bits and pieces of unidentified gunk were mucking up the works. Let's face it, it's a machine in a physical body...the two often do not get along. But, we had a fairly good 12 years with it. Nonetheless, a full shunt revision is a big deal, carries with it some risks...but Sophie was in the best of hands. We are lucky to have two exceptional pediatric neurosurgeons in this town.

Below, you get a sense of the plumbing involved.





All of that was removed and replaced with new, including the tubing that is directly in the ventricle in the brain. One small piece of tubing was too stuck in her abdominal area to pull out, so it was left behind (they do that...leave it there). So, with all that tubing just pulled out...ewwwwww!...you can imagine Sophie is quite sore. She had been in surgery only a month prior too. Kid has had the crap beat out of her.

But you know, she was out of surgery by 7:30 PM, and we were home by 6PM the next day!! Hurray!!! Home is always safer, cleaner and the food better...and safer and cleaner!! Sophie is doing well today...lots of naps but she is eating and drinking well. She is one strong little gal that one.

But what a rough road. I spent some time in the hospital "sanctuary", which is beautiful and peaceful. I had my little cry at imagining my poor gal having to endure yet another surgery and all the pain that accompanies it. I love that child so much...she is amazing to behold. Below is a photo (hers and Sophie's hands) and prayer that Sophie's lovely home school caregiver and friend put together...

Every prayer, every positive thought, every intention towards faith truly brings about miracles

Keep it humble, keep it simple and look for the undeniable evidence of something greater, more powerful than anything we could ever aspire to be as simple humans.
Pamela D.