Feb 27 2009
Shunt Surgery; Say A Prayer for Lena
It is February 27, and Lena is in surgery as I type this. Last time Lena had shunt surgery, she was just a little baby and took it all in stride pretty well. She’d been through so many surgeries that she’d become a little trooper at the process.
It’s been over a year since she needed shunt surgery, and today she was one terrified little girl. She had to be intubated before the surgery, and didn’t understand why she couldn’t talk or call out to her Mommy or even cry. Just big alligator tears with no sound to go with them and that horrible scary thing in her throat.
The doctors are going to put in an external shunt, and then she’ll have to stay in the hospital for 4 days to be sure there is no infection. If her tests are clear of infection in 4 days, she will go back into surgery to have a new shunt inserted. If there is infection, she’ll have to stay in longer. Either way, there’s another surgery before she can go back home.
Kassie is at home with her Nana and Poppa. Daddy will be coming home for the night, but she’s one confused little girl because her mommy and sister left and didn’t come home all day, not even for bedtime.
If you could say a little prayer or think good thoughts for Lena, Kassie and their Mommy, it would be very appreciated. Right now, they would appreciate all the sunshine, hugs or prayers you can send them.
P.S. I’ll update when I hear back from Korrina post surgery.
13 Responses to “Shunt Surgery; Say A Prayer for Lena”
Thinking of you all!
You certainly have our prayers. I pray there will be no infection and the shunt can be placed without any complications. (((hugs))) and lots of love.
Angela
Korrina, I know there are times when you’re probably even too tired to pray. For those times, use this list to choose and ask a Patron Saint to pray for you (right along with all those aunties who have candles in windows and say prayers you never know about…).
It’s alphabetical.
Hugs to you and your little angels. <3
The kids and I will continue to keep your angels in our prayers, hope everything goes well.
Hope Lena’s surgery went well and she’s recovering well!
I wanted to ask you to send me an email at angwilhelm@gmail.com so I can send you an invite to read my blog! I have gone “invite only” for the time being!
(((hugs)))
Angela
Hope the surgery went well…. The girls are in our prayers..
We just found out yesterday that our little girl has a hole from her grade 4 IVH..
Lena is in my thoughts and I hope everything goes(went) well
Poor Lena - and you. Both of you are fighters.
Does your other twin have hydrocephalia?
how is she doing?
Hi my name is dinah and i had a son that was born with hydrocephalus and i had gave up all hope but my family and so many other people prayed for my son and finally i realized that i couldn’t do it without God on my side so i turned to God and i told him that i placed my son into his hands and whatever his will is let it be done but give me the strength to except the things that i can’t change. At that time i stopped worring because i knew i couldn’t place him in no better hands and i promise you things started to turn around for him i promise you when you let go and let God you can’t go wrong. No matter how bad Lena’s situation is keep the faith and don’t let the devil steal it from you cause he can be so busy at times and before you know he will have your faith that you thought you had so just keep the faith cause faith is what moves God and always know that God is the healer of all healers and with God we are everything and without God we are nothing. So let this be words of encouragement to you and i will keep lena in my prayers and if you need to email about anything my email address is dinah.stephens@yahoo.com feel free at anytime to email me and my prayers really go out to you lena and her sister. Inspite of it all keep the FAITH.
Having been in that very situation I would say he/she would be in for three days, at least that was my average in my teen years, and you would take it slow; you would probably want to get excused from PE for a couple of weeks, but this is just an educated guess, I would ask your neurosurgeon to be sure.
I have already done the colonoscopy and upper GI tests. As far as “managing” the device, these shunts are programmable as to how much of the fluid they drain. To make them drain more or less the neuro will put a magnetic type of device by the shunt (the programmable part of them is usually behind the ear) and adjust the flow up or down.