Our intent today was to stop by the hospital briefly this morning to see Joshua and then head to our house to exchange some things, get new clothes, and maybe even sleep in our own bed! We didn't get very far. We barely missed the neurosurgeon when he did his rounds this morning. The nurse told us that he peeled back the dressing and checked Joshua's incision. The dressing was wet and he saw more CSF leaking from the incision. They were concerned that one of Joshua's ventricles may have collapsed or that the catheter wasn't draining from the optimal place and they would have to change the placement. To check, the neurosurgeon ordered an ultrasound on Josh's head. The ultrasound was inconclusive in finding the size of all the ventricles. Therefore, the doctor ordered a CT scan of his head. Once he read the CT scan, he told us that the catheter is in a prime location, which is good. It was draining primarly from the third ventricle. He wanted to pull it out 1 cm so that it would improve the drainage. The nice thing is that he doesn't even need to go to the OR to do it. He was able to give Joshua a little pain medicine and do the procedure right at the bedside. It took the better part of an hour. I'm so happy that they didn't need to go in and move the catheter to a different spot on his head, both for Joshua's healing and for us. We feel like we're being stretched in every way, but if they shave off any more of our baby's adorable hair than they have to, I'm going to flip out! The neurosurgeon will continue to check Joshua's back throughout the weekend. We pray that the CSF will stop leaking and his incision will dry out and heal up! The doctor doesn't want us to hold him for a couple of days which is hard, but if it means that Joshua will heal faster, we're all for it. So needless to say, we didn't go home. Hopefully we'll get to at some point next week for a day or two.
Joshua continues to surprise us! As we had mentioned before, the physical therapist gave us some stretches to do with his legs and ankles and also encouraged us to massage them. We have to be extremely careful now because they want him to lay flat so that the CSF can drain from his catheter but we can still do them. Last night while Joshua was sleeping, Matt was massaging his feet and a smile kept sweeping across Joshua's face. We were pretty sure that it tickled him. Shortly after that, he kicked his right leg back! Up to this point, any movement that we have seen in his legs is because he's been moving his hips. We will really begin to see what his capabilities are when he gets a little older but we believe that this isn't where this ends! Hold on little one...God's not done with you yet! Not every tear has to be a tear of sadness!
- Kim and Matt
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