Brett is in the hospital....

It all started Tuesday afternoon when my call to the neurosurgeon prompted them to tell us to go directly to the emergency room...we still have no answers...here are some of the details, pasted from emails I have been sending to friends....

Wednesday, August 2nd noon:
Brett was admitted through the ER last night to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. He is undergoing tests right now that will determine if they need to do surgery. Brett has a VP shunt and they suspect that it may be malfunctioning. If they decide that it is malfunctioning, they will go in and revise it.....never a pleasant thought when they have to drill into your child's brain.Prayers are much appreciated.

Thursday, August 3rd 9 AM:
We are still in a holding pattern. There is no spinal fluid in the ventricles so they have to believe that the shunt is at least working to some degree. They are having an infectious disease guy come in to see why the lymph nodes in his abdomen are so tender (for those unfamiliar with shunts, Brett's shunt drains into his abdominal cavity). They are also supposed to be sending him to opthamalogy to see why there is atrophy in his optic nerve. They are trying new drugs for the head pain (Brett is saying it is an 8 out of 10) and the abdominal pain (7 out of 10) because the meds they have been giving him aren't working at all. Maybe we will have some answers by the end of the day, but I am not holding my breath. No surgery today unless something emerges rapidly and they feel it is life or death.

Continued prayers are appreciated.

Thursday, August 3rd 4 PM:
I am home right now...doing child care, laundry. etc while Jay does the "sit at the hospital and wait" thing.....Will senses the stress and wants to nurse nonstop, he just sits here and cries..."mama, boob, boob, mama" when I am not here! They have done more tests today but still haven't gotten back to Jay with anything definitive. The billing/financial aid lady came in and laughed when Jay told her there were 10 in our family....her charts only go up to a family of 8! Just another headache to sort out!

Waiting for consults with neurosurgery, general surgery, neurology, and opthamalogy....as typical they are moving at a snails pace. The new meds don't seem to be helping, but they only started them this morning so I don't want to say they definitely aren't right.

Thursday, August 3rd 4:15 PM: While typing this entry Jay called from the hospital. They are suspecting that Brett may have a pseudocyst (sp) in his abdominal cavity and that this pseudocyst is infected (causing the swollen lymph nodes and abdomenial pain) and that the infection is traveling up the shunt and causing the headaches (OK, I thought shunts were one way systems, but anywho...). If this is the case, they will do surgery, remove the shunt, drain the cyst, let the infection clear and then do surgery again to place a new shunt (at least this is how Jay understands what they told him). Sounds like we might be in store for a long hospital stay!

Still waiting on more tests and more doctors. Maybe we will get an answer today!