Ella was amazingly good at the hospital before surgery, watching movies looking at books, listening to music. A real sport (on an empty stomach yet) After a very long wait at the pre-op room and an insistence to meet Dr. Black before surgery we had a meeting with him and he went over the procedure with us. The intention was to replace the malfunctioning part, probably the tube leading from the brain cavity to the valve (because no liquid was making it through). We on the other hand stressed that through two years of fiddling with the settings and checking and rechecking the result was always the same, absolutely no change in the right ventricle size (we want it to shrink) or the left brain hemisphere (we want it to grow). We asked about the possibility of radically changing the pressure to allow that. Dr. Black said it was a good idea and that he will place a lower pressure valve and set it low if what he finds justifies that). The procedure is not a long one (about an hour and a half). It took longer though, almost three hours for logistical reasons, we heard later. Ella emerged yesterday afternoon, very groggy and proceeded to sleep through moving back to the ward and all through the night. She woke up this morning and seems to be fine. She is eating and drinking, yet is still a bit groggy. She will be dismissed this afternoon. We are hoping this will bring good things for Ella in the future (also hoping for no shunt malfunctions). Ella is starting her school program in a few days. I hope she will be up to going. She enjoys it so.
In this day and age with technology where it is, I am surprised at the limitations that exist concerning hydrocephalus and shunts. For example. The shunt setting can be changed from outside (no surgical intervention) using a magnetic device, though once set you never know if the setting actually was received. (you send the message but you don’t know if it was heard). The only way to find out is to take an x-ray and see if the valve setting moved (literally). The biggest problem though is that there is no way of knowing what the pressure is inside the skull. CTs are taken and compared to previous CTs trying to get some circumstantial evidence about the pressure. But what the actual pressure is… no one knows unless you perform some invasive procedure such as sticking in a needle. With all the miniature sensors around you would think this would be easy… (my watch has a pressure sensor, thermometer, compass and altimeter) That is why having a shunt is such a scary proposition?