We Need A Festival Miracle

The fourth of July is quickly approaching and we have been cautiously anticipating a trip to the High Sierra Music festival for many months.  Spending the 4th weekend at High Sierra, dancing away the day and night in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains has been a tradition of ours for over 12 years with Carly attending her first festival when she was just 5 months old. We missed the festival last year when Carly wasn’t doing well, but after three good weeks in a row it was looking like it was going to happen for us all this year.

Unfortunately, as we know too well, life can take an unexpected turn at any moment and for Carly that turn was a few days ago.  Christa and I noticed that she seemed a little “off” and we were both a little concerned that her shunt was not functioning properly.  Last night and this morning she was particularly uncomfortable and we realized that Carly was clearly suffering from high intracranial pressure. There are two possibilities, either she is on the edge with her current shunt setting and simply needs a lower setting or the shunt is clogged once again. Fortunately changing the setting is a fast and painless process that takes about a minute, so the neurosurgery nurse practitioner made the change earlier today. At this point all we can do is wait and see if the change gives Carly the relief that she deserves, and if we get that answer by Wednesday morning we can head up to the festival as planned. Of course a festival is secondary to Carly’s well being, but some sunshine, mountain air, music and good friends would be a wonderful healing time for all three of us. Let’s hope this unexpected path makes a turn for the better soon.

Love, Brad