Shunt Happens

October 14th

 

The Plan: Take Noah to Steven's work picnic, socialize, eat some food, then visit Steven's family.

 

What Really Happened: Late to the work picnic, half-way through Noah started screaming at the top of his lungs, couldn't find a place to sit and eat where we could park the stroller, ended up being late to Steven's family's house and THEN...

 

His back started leaking spinal fluid.

 

Icing on top of the horrible day cake? Immediately after, tornado warning. We were speechless.

 

Oh man. Talk about overwhelming. Earlier that day we gave Noah a bath and while I got ready Steven changed him into an outfit I picked out and I accused him of not drying him off enough because his onesie was wet. That was one accusation I'll always regret and Steven got a very heartfelt apology for. I called Nurse on Call and we took him to the ER for the first time. We were both very calm, cool, and collected. We both knew a shunt was going to be needed. We just didn't know when. I had researched a bunch of facts about VP shunt placement surgery and fet like I had a good grasp on what to expect. We were admitted into our first hospital room on the pediatrics floor and cuddled up on the hospital bed together with Noah by our bedside, ready for whatever tomorrow brought.

 

The next day they took Noah back for surgery to place his first VP shunt. Tears were shed and prayers were said. Everything went fine, he went into anesthesia and came out okay too. We waited a week for his shunt to heal enough to take him home and a week later we were homeward bound again. We praised God for no complications.