December 19, 2006

December 19, 2006 at 07:12 PM CST

Tuesday evening…
Abby had her CT scan and doctor visit with her neurosurgeon today. He was running 2.5 hrs late so it ended up being a long morning! Her ventricles still look small, which is a big answer to prayer. Dr. Oakes doesn’t want to rush into surgery to fix her shunt unless she starts showing symptoms of problems. He told us that the shunt is either able to drain enough to keep her ventricles from filling up with excess fluid temporarily, or she doesn’t need it anymore. Because her hydrocephalus is due to inflammation from her brain bleed and not a congenital problem, there isn’t any way to predict what will happen. If five years pass and her ventricles remain small without a shunt revision than he said we could assume she no longer needs it! (That’s what we are praying for)

Dr. Oakes explained that there is risk associated with surgery but also risk with not repairing the shunt. He didn’t want to give percentages but made it clear that things could turn critical quickly. Unfortunately this news doesn’t bring significant comfort, although we are glad she isn’t having problems with her brain at this time. We will continue to watch her closely and return to Children’s in February for another CT and follow up visit. If everything still looks good we will do another CT four months from then. He said one positive thing is that the ER is open 24 hrs a day… in case we see any worrying signs. Great, thanks, now we feel better!

This could be the Lord displaying His healing hand in her life! Maybe Abby will remain stable and prove to all of us that she doesn’t need that old shunt anymore. Praise Him if that is true.

Please continue to pray that we will have wisdom to recognize any signs of problems. Abby belongs to the Lord; we’ve given her over to Him many times. It can be difficult to not worry about what could happen. I guess ‘trusting’ means we should let her sleep upstairs in her own bed again… (she’s been in our room since last week, so we can hear her better)

Thanks for all of your prayers, notes of encouragement and phone calls. We love you all!

Merry Christmas.