HOME :)

It always takes them a while to get their rounds in and a doctor into the room in the morning to discharge her, the paperwork, etc. but Morgan is looking & feeling good so we were able to take her home late this morning.  We are exhausted and wishing entering our house would be a bit more welcoming & inviting but can’t say it is when you walk in and survey the mess of dishes, laundry, vomit filled car seat, smelly trash can, etc. that you ran out on a couple of days before.  Thinking of another brilliant charity idea when I am a retired, empty nester and bored- offering an emergency housekeeping service!  Also feeling like I have neglected my other child knowing I probably didn’t pump as much as I should have the last few days (he loves to eat) and missing him since I haven’t seen him in a couple of days.  Unfortunately all of this had to wait so that we could get Morgan bathed and over to Grandma’s to focus on work and save the remaining vacation time we have this year just in case it happens again.

Setting this all aside because the most important thing is being thankful that my daughter is healthy and home and didn’t require another brain surgery!  I am not even sure if anybody reads this blog but if you are reading it we thank you once again for your support and prayers.

monitoring

We woke up early to meet with neurosurgery when they were on their rounds.  They reviewed the scans and spoke to us about what their concerns are and put in orders to have stomach ultrasound done to look closer at the suspicious area for cyst/fluid buildup.  Apparently an infection can cause cyst to form near the tubing and cause fluid build up, another uncommon issue with shunts.  Typical symptoms would include bulging of the belly and constipation- neither of which Morgan had.  Even though Morgan usually likes to show her “button” she was not that excited about a stranger rubbing the jelly over her stomach and was a bit traumatic to get through.  Great news we found out shortly after is that there is no fluid buildup and they do not believe any issues with the shunt line.  Bad news is that they do want her to stay overnight again just to monitor.  They are not convinced her vomiting is just a “bug” at this point because she had no fever or other symptoms and very similar to her previous shunt revision behavior.  

 

They let her start eating again so we started with some dry cereal and water which she did fine with and then ordered her breakfast- she held everything down.  The rest of the day Pat and I took shifts going to get work done and keeping Morgan occupied & playing. They finally got us a room on the 6^th floor (out of ER) that afternoon and Morgan was pretty happy playing with toys in the crib, eating well and holding down her food. Overall it was not a bad day for being at the hospital.

Another scare

I picked up Morgan from Grandma’s as usual today and she was acting fine- even stood up on her own for a few seconds.  As we were in the car headed home I heard her whine like she was in pain and noticed she threw up a little bit on her shirt.  We got home and suddenly she was VERY tired, eyes glossy and threw up some more.  Of course its 5:30pm and doctor’s office is closed so I can’t call but called pat to hurry home, my mom to pick up Max and rushed around to throw stuff into a bag for Morgan knowing whenever we head to Children’s Hospital we end up sleeping there.  As we were driving up to Children’s Morgan started vomiting more and was crying like she was in pain and I knew we did the right thing.  The extra 5 miles further away we live from the hospital now suddenly feels like a bad idea! 

Children’s ER was extremely busy (found out later the busiest they have ever been) so we had to wait for a nurse to see her and then wait for a room to open up (I think this was rushed by the fact that she was vomiting all over the front entrance and close to unconsciousness). It was slow moving but we got her in and checked out, down for CT Scans and X rays and hooked her up to IV for fluids.  The ER doctor came back in and said the radiologist and neurosurgeon on call looked at her scans and her ventricles look fine – thank god! They were, however, concerned about a spot in her abdomen that could potentially be a cyst at the end of her shunt tubing so wanted to keep her overnight for monitoring and have her neurosurgeon review in the morning.  They admitted Morgan but didn’t have rooms available in the PICU or elsewhere so we spent the evening in the ER- wasn’t until 2am that they were able to get a crib in her room so most of the evening I held Morgan and slept on the cot – needless to say it was a restless evening.  We also learned our lesson not to give Morgan her blanky when she is throwing up because it was covered of course and then we couldn’t give it back to her. Poor thing missing the one thing that gives her comfort when she is being poked and prodded and sleeping in a strange place so Dad had to go pick up the backup blanky and bring it back up to her.