A Busy Weekend

Well, it’s official. Abby is on lock down during RSV season, which stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. RSV season lasts until the end of March. Because Abby was on a respiratory ventilator she now has chronic lung disease and is very susceptible to RSV. If she did get it, it could turn into bronchitis and / or pneumonia and possibly kill her. Needless to say, we’re going to be extremely careful these next few months.



Thursday was Abby’s first RSV immunization shot. She’ll get one every month through March. She didn’t like it at all and spent most of Thursday sleeping. We thought she would be back to her normal happy self on Friday, but she was still very lethargic and sleepy. This is unusual for Abby. She usually takes 20 to 30 minute naps during the day but she never sleeps for an hour or two like she was on Friday. Abby was very fussy as well which is also unlike her. Kelly thought she might be getting sick so she checked her temperature but it was normal. Then Kelly checked Abby’s soft spot. It wasn’t soft at all. This was bad news because when Abby’s soft spot is full it might mean her shunt is not working. Since fussiness and sleepiness are also signs that the shunt might not be working, Kelly decided to call the hospital who transferred her to the on call neurosurgeon. She told us to bring Abby into the ER immediately, that it sounded like Abby’s shunt was indeed clogged and she would need to operate on her. This was terrible news! This meant brain surgery number 5 and her fourth shunt revision. We were told that while shunts in little ones like Abby do get clogged, Abby’s shunt seemed to get clogged more frequently than others. Great. Just what we need.



Anyway, Kelly brought Abby in and the neurosurgeon ran two tests to confirm the shunt was clogged. First, she stuck a needle in the shunt and then pulled back on it with a tiny syringe but no fluid came out. 99.9% of the time this means the shunt is clogged. At that point the doctor told us that it looked like Abby would be going into emergency surgery. She had the nurses start an IV line on Abby and call down to the OR to get everything ready. The second test was a CT scan to check the ventricles. If the shunt was clogged, the ventricles, which are the areas where the fluid accumulates would be more full than normal. But guess what? The ventricles WEREN’T overflowing with fluid as we had anticipated. Huh? So the shunt WAS working? Then why was the shunt tube empty? Why was Abby’s soft spot feeling full? Why was Abby so lethargic? We didn’t get any definitive answers. The neurosurgeon wasn’t convinced that Abby’s symptoms weren’t caused by something other than the shunt but she wasn’t convinced that they were. Either way, Abby WASN’T going into surgery! Yeah! But we couldn’t leave just yet. The neurosurgeon wanted to observe Abby for a while to make sure everything was alright. We spent the night at the hospital Friday night and stayed there all day on Saturday. Abby tolerated her feedings all night and all day and her soft spot started feeling a bit more soft as well. At around 4:00PM on Saturday we were discharged.

And there you have it. Ever since we got her home on Saturday Abby has been doing pretty good. She is still sleeping more than usual but when she is awake she is back to the happy little Abby we’re used to. So the doctor told us to stay on high alert and call immediately with any changes. We see the neurosurgeon early this week for a follow up visit and will keep you posted. But for now, we’re happy to be home.

Please pray that Abby’s shunt will continue to work well and that she will stay strong.

We love you all.