surgery update

Juddah just went down for his 'power nap' so I'll try and get a blog post up. He had his first surgery two weeks ago, and it all went well. Shortly after surgery spinal fluid started accumulating on the out side of his brain between his skull and skin, the two pockets of fluid were the size of a tennis ball cut in half... quite large and looked horrible but didn't seem to be painful, they were on the top of his head right where the incision and sutures were and the other one just below it and above his ear. Sweet little man continued tho to be in good spirits, with just a few fussy times. Rick my hubby was here during the week of surgery which helped a lot and we divided the shifts between day and night, so we both had a time to sleep at the hotel. Juddah ended up being in the hospital for a week as he started running a fever and as a result decided not to eat. He lost about a pound, but gained most of it back during the end of the week. We checked out of the hospital with the pockets of fluid, the surgeon thought that his body would start resorbing the fluid and the pressure would equalize inside his brain. On Monday the fluid pockets were bigger, so we made a trip to the doctors office, there an intern tapped the pockets of fluid from the outside with a syringe and IV needle... not fun, and lots of tears, but he was able to remove all the fluid and he then wrapped his head with a pressure bandage to try and help the pressure equalize, by the evening the bandage came off on it's own, and the fluid was accumulating again. Another trip to the doctor's office and this time we were sent directly to hospital to check in. Another surgery was needed, so they could insert a plastic bubble under his skin where the fluid could collect and they would tap the fluid from there. That surgery all went fine too. The surgeon said his brain was once again compressed down from the fluid that had built up. Later that evening, the fluid made a new path in Juddahs head, and instead of going into the bubble, it collected in the side of his head, which meant that his head would have to be tapped with a needle twice a day... lots of tears, but it needed to be done. We are on the fourth day of having external taps 2x a day, and this morning he finally did not need it tapped. A small amount of fluid has collected  and it's now noon, but I'm hoping that it is stabilizing itself and he will not need a tap tonight. Little man is waking up... we cannot let him cry as that increased the pressure in head.. I'll post this for now and hope to update later...

prayer warriors still needed...