Brain Surgery #2

Jessie has been going down-hill lately, as the hydrocephalus continues to get worse. Last week, it seemed like tegretol was calming things down, but now, her episodes are getting more frequent again, even with an increase of Tegretol.

Dr. Carson (Hopkins), Dr. Mathern (UCLA), and Dr. Donahue (Cook Children's) all agreed that we need to go ahead and move forward with surgery to place a Shunt in Jessie's Brain to relieve the increased pressure and build-up of spinal fluid. Surgery is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 5th at Cook Children's Hospital. Dr. Donahue will be performing the surgery.

Here are a few links if you are interested:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003019.htm

http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/003019.htm

This video is kinda graphic, but very cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7Xa-Lsnac

Most literature outlines several symptoms of hydrocephalus, which quite frankly, we haven't seen. These are usually things like headache, dizziness, sleepiness, and vomiting. She has really only exhibited some vomiting. She has had none of the other symptoms. We believe that her pressure has built very slowly over the past two years, and therefore, she has been able to deal with it pretty well.

I've outlined the things that we have seen over the past two years, which may be attributed to building hydrocephalus. This doesn't mean that just because your child exhibits these that they may have hydrocephalus, but it may be worth exploring with your child's neurologist.

1.) rocking
2.) nervous hands
3.) hand strumming
4.) tummy episodes
5.) vomiting
6.) biting clothes
7.) hurts when we rub her neck
8.) left bug eye
9.) behavior
10.) ventricle size (obvious on MRI or CT )
11.) nose wiping
12.) lip picking
13,) lip / finger preseverating
14.) general nervousness
15.) bad short term memory
16.) loses focus

Currently, we do not believe that Jessie's symptoms are seizures. That is our prayer. We also pray that the surgeons and staff at Cook's Children's Hospital do the very best that they can to get us through this bump in the road. We pray for no infections, no complication, no over-draining, and a quick recovery.

God Bless,

Cris