Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Surgery Report


[Chillin' before surgery....no idea what was coming.]

So things didn't go quite as planned during Elisabeth's surgery yesterday. I figured that out as I watched the clock ticking away past the time they were supposed to be done with surgery. It ticked and ticked and ticked. I started feeling a little anxious because I knew something wasn't right. Finally, after two hours, Dr. G came out.

"That was a bit of a wrestling match," he said.

Then he proceeded to tell us that there was a considerable amount of scar tissue that had built up along the shunt tract - following the distal catheter down her neck, through her chest, and into her abdomen.

Apparently this is extremely rare in a child Elisabeth's age.

So Dr. G. had to carefully scrape it all away...all the way down the inside of her body. How he did that I do not know. Granted there were four incisions, but still.... (Dr. G's PA told me it was actually 'quite barbaric'). Once that was all taken care of, he placed her new medium pressure shunt.

Elisabeth spent the rest of the day on morphine. She opened her eyes two times, other than that she has slept. Poor little thing, I can't imagine how sore her body must feel - ouch.



[Incision #1 - head]


[Incision #2 - behind the right ear]


[Incision #3 - chest]


[Incision #4 - Abdomen]


Thanks for all the well wishes. And a extra big thanks to my mom, who had this new sock monkey delivered to Elisabeth along with a get-well balloon! Thank you!


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