Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Carly celebrated her McCarthy roots (Christa's mother's side of the family) and marked the occasion with her festive hat and a dinner of mashed kiwis (ok, so that's not Irish but it is green!) She sends a hearty hug out to everyone, and a pinch to those who forgot to wear green.

Love, Brad

Birds Of A Feather

I know we just posted a picture of Carly napping but we couldn't help ourselves. Carly had a checkup with the general pediatric surgery team yesterday to make sure her lung was completely healed. The chest x-ray showed that she has healed perfectly so that chapter is now behind us.

In preparation for Carly's next surgery we have been checking with the other major centers for pediatric brain tumor treatment to see if there is any additional insight for Carly's treatment. Dr. Gupta recommended we speak with the teams at Boston Children's, NYU Children's and St. Jude and all have been very responsive in evaluating Carly's case. We will meet with Dr. Gupta next Thursday to review all of the input along with his recommendations to finalize the plan for the next procedure. We continue to visualize the day when Carly will be tumor free.

Love, Brad

Sun Day

Carly's favorite part of the weekend was her time spent outside, including a Sunday afternoon stroll/nap in the sun. She was particularly happy as she sat out back in "Carly's Garden" soaking in the healing love that everyone put into this special place. Her third tooth came through in the last day which was not a highlight of the weekend for her, but she persevered like a little trooper. Her shunt is working and she continues to regain her strength after the recent trips to the hospital.

During our last trip to UCSF, Carly had a routine MRI checkup to monitor the tumor growth. These images show that the tumor is growing faster than they would expect from this type of tumor. Because she is so young everything is growing quickly and the tumor seems to be no exception. While Dr. Gupta would have liked to wait longer before performing the second tumor resection, he believes that the advantages of waiting will be outweighed by the problems that the growing tumor may cause. He is recommending that the next major surgery be moved up to April 8, when they will attempt to totally remove the remaining tumor. Between now and then we will continue to shower Carly with love and help her build up as much strength as possible to help get her through the long procedure.

Love, Brad

Home

Carly's lung is back to normal and the shunt is functioning properly so we were discharged once again on Tuesday evening. The walk home from the hospital never fails to lift all of our spirits. Carly is clearly happy to be home again and is full of smiles. We are hopeful that Carly will get an extended period of peace which she deserves.

Love, Brad

Oh Boy...

We were thrown a curve ball this morning. We were hopeful that Carly would be discharged this afternoon when they ordered a chest x-ray. We were not really expecting this and we learned that they were concerned that she had a collapsed lung. The x-ray showed that her left lung was collapsed down to only 1/3 its normal size. It turns out that while they were poking around trying to place her shunt catheter during her surgery last Tuesday they nicked her lung creating a slow leak that led to the collapsed state revealed by the x-ray. We were obviously not expecting anything like this and we couldn't help but wonder why this wasn't found earlier. She was taken back to the OR around 2 PM to have a chest tube placed between her ribs into the space around her lung. The chest tube was connected to suction and fortunately her lung returned to near it's normal size within the first hour.

The chest tube will stay connected to suction through the night and Carly will have another chest x-ray in the morning that will hopefully show that her lung is back to its normal state. They will then remove the tube and give her some time without suction before another x-ray to verify that all is normal. If it is, she will get the green light to go home. She remains remarkably strong through all of this.

Love, Brad

Resilient

Carly's surgery lasted about three hours and went well. They found that the drainage tube from the shunt valve into her heart was not flowing freely. It was either blocked by a small clot or the end was pressed up against the wall of the vein, restricting the flow. They replaced this catheter as well as the shunt valve and the ventricular catheter as a precaution against infection. Carly is feeling pretty good already and offered up a few smiles at her penguin Waddles.

Love, Brad

Back Again?

You're not going to believe it, but we are back in the hospital once again. Last night we noticed that the dressing on Carly's shunt incision seemed damp and later in the night it was clear that CSF was leaking through the suture holes of the incision on the back of her head. We spoke with neurosurgery first thing this morning and they admitted her around 1pm. Dr. Gupta is coming in to perform another revision on the shunt later tonight. They will inspect all of the components and replace anything that may be faulty. They will also take extra care to ensure that the shunt has a water-tight seal where it exits her skull. We continue to visualize a healthy and happy Carly at the end of all of these surgeries.

Love, Brad

Where There's A Will There's A Way

We are back home again which is always a relief for all of us. We are lucky to live this close to the hospital otherwise I am sure we wouldn't get out so quickly. Carly is definitely in more pain than her previous surgeries but she is dealing with it remarkably well. She napped most of the day and we're hoping that she can get back to feeling like herself over the weekend. The shunt seems to be working properly now and we are going to will this one to do the trick for her.

Love, Brad