Thirty Three

It has been a very long time since my last post, which this time has been a good sign for Carly.  Her most recent shunt lasted 10 weeks, which is a new record for Carly.  During these ten weeks she has done a lot of fun things, including going to her fourth High Sierra Music Festival and a recent trip to visit family and relax at Douglas Lake in Michigan.  The days were not all good for Carly, with some times when we thought a shunt surgery was just around the corner, but she would then pull out of that and follow it up with a few better days.  Consistently so-so is how I had been describing it, but that is a step in the right direction.

Over the last week the less good days were on the rise and we were certain that she would soon need to have a shunt surgery.  That day was today, and she headed into the OR around noon to get shunt # 33.  Dr. Gupta noted that it was clogged, but did not seem as extreme as past revisions.  Her protein levels have dropped a slowly and are now down to 207.  Dr. Gupta wants to see that get into the 100's, and at that point the expectation is that her shunt would be much less likely to clog.  She has her new shunt in place now and she is resting comfortably next to me in her hospital room.  We are hoping that this shunt will set yet another new record, and I will not wait for it to fail to make my next post.

Love, Brad