Tap It Out
I've been waiting to post because a) I've just been completely beat by the time I get home from the hospital and trying to get daily life things done, and b) Malachi has been for the most part, stable. Well, other than the fact that his head grew 5 cm in 2 weeks. Normal infant head growth is about 1 cm per week. But, we were continually being told by the residents, attendings, fellows and neurosurgeons that since he was not showing any other clinical symptoms (apnea, bradys, vomiting, trouble with feeds, etc) they were just going to keep monitoring him with weekly head ultrasounds. After his head circumference reached 31.5 cm and we basically threatened every single person we possibly could in that damn hospital, neuro finally decided it was time to tap his shunt to relieve some of the pressure on Sunday night. They pulled 10mL out and another 3mL soaked into the pressure bandage they put on him because the puncture site was leaking CSF. His head is now measuring just about 30 cm and looks pretty good. He had some trouble with his breathing after the procedure so he was put on high flow at 2% but they took him off this morning and he's been just fine. When I finally got to speak with the neurosurgeon, she said he would probably have to get tapped every 2-3 days. His feeds are at 36mL and our little chunky monkey weighs 3lb 15 oz. I'm hoping he hits the 4lb mark tomorrow or Thursday. Then it will just be about 14 more ounces to go before he can have his surgery! We don't know yet if he will get the vp shunt or the etv with cauterization. Neuro will do an mri to see if his brain/skull anatomy is a good candidate for the etv (no shunt). Otherwise, a shunting it will be. We would prefer the etv, but either way, we just want to get the hydrocephalus under control so we can start thinking about him actually coming home. He's not breastfeeding yet so speech therapy is going to take a look at him sometime this week or next to see if he has any issues with his mouth. He's nippled a couple of times and I tried feeding him a slow drip bottle, he was just having trouble actually swallowing. He seems to tire out pretty quickly when my boob is in his face, lol. He is a pretty content baby and he is turning into such a little character. His facial expressions absolutely kill us. He has a little kissy face that I just can't get enough of.