Surgery follow up

What's up Abby Fans,

I hope everyone had a good Friday. Kelly and I are happy to announce that today marks 5 incredible years together! Yep, our 5 year anniversary was today!
Alright then...let's get down to it...

We all know she had surgery this morning and had her shunt was put in. As I mentioned earlier today it went well. Because the doctor had to shave another part of Abby's head for the shunt, Kelly asked him to go ahead and shave the whole thing. I think she looks a lot better than the half shaved thing she had going on before, but Kelly isn't so sure. Her head circumference has already gone down significantly now that the shunt is draining all the fluid into her abdomen. From there, Abby's body will just absorb the fluid. Since there was a lot of fluid to be drained right away, her tummy area has gotten pretty big. This was expected though. The shunt tube itself is pretty visible right now. It starts behind her left hear, goes down her neck and down the left side of her chest and into her tummy. As soon as Abby gains some weight, you won't be able to see it.

Since Abby had to be put out for the surgery, she had to go back on the ventilator. Bummer. She was doing so great on the nasal cannula! But today, the RT (respiratory therapist) had already gone way down on the ventilator settings and we hope to have her off of it and back on the nasal cannula by tomorrow morning. Another surgery set back is that we had to stop Abby's feedings. This is protocol for the surgery but we're hoping she resumes her feeds tomorrow evening or by Sunday Morning. She was getting 14 CC's every 3 hours, but she will start back up with about a third of that. As long as her tummy tolerates it well, they will continue to increase her feeding amount, but after surgery it usually takes Abby a while to get back up to speed on her feeds.

Our doctor said that the next 3 months are the most critical for the shunt regarding infection. If we can make it past 3 months, then we're more or less in the clear from a shunt infection stand point. And as of right now, everything is going well. Abby is our little fighter! She now has 3 surgeries under her belt. One heart surgery and 2 brain surgeries!

Thank you all for your continued love and support. Please continue to write all your kind words on this blogsite. They mean so much to us and they're nice to read after a long day with Abby. Whoever wrote that prayer...thank you. It brought a much needed tear to my eye. And for those of you that continuously pop in to say hello, we love it. Keep doing it.

Have a great Saturday. Pray that Abby recovers quickly.

K n R