Roller Coaster Of Love

Today was one of those days when you realize that the path we are on is a roller coaster ride full of highs and lows. Carly's head is very swollen again so she had an ultrasound to check on her progress. They found that the ventricles in her brain are more swollen than last time, indicating that she may have hydrocephalus. Typically a person continually produces cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which is absorbed back into the body at the same rate so there is a fresh supply at all times. When someone has hydrocephalus their body does not absorb the CSF as quickly as it is produced which results in an excess amount of fluid in the brain. The treatment for this is the insertion of a shunt, which is a tube that runs from the brain to the abdomen with a one way valve that allows the excess CSF to be drained. The bad news is that when shunts are inserted in kids under age three it typically means that they will need to have a shunt for life, as it causes their biological means of absorbing CSF to stop developing. While this is a problem that we obviously need to address for Carly, we also want to avoid locking her into a future that can possibly be avoided.

Dr. Gupta gave us the option of either inserting a shunt or performing a second "tap and wrap" (drain and bandage) tomorrow afternoon. He doesn't feel that another round of tapping will be any danger to Carly, but he isn't certain it will be effective either. We have decided to try it anyway and will be directing all of our energy to trying to help Carly heal this critical brain function. Carly will most likely have another ultrasound on Friday to evaluate the size of her ventricles and decide if a shunt in unavoidable or not. Please send all of your prayers and energy to this healing.

Love, Brad