Up Date On Greg As of Feb. 2002!
Greg has been hospitalized a total of six (6) times in the last month and a half.
On Jan. 7th I went to wake Greg up for his morning feeding (his breakfast). Greg was having difficulty breathing and he would not respond to me. I called his physician (as well as his dad at work). We rushed Greg to the hospital and several test were done.
Greg was admitted in the hospital where he stayed for the next four (4) days.
Greg seemed to be doing all right but was not his usual self. He started crying non-stop, day and night. (You have to know my son; he is normally a happy child and hardly ever cries). So if he cries non-stop like this we know something is terribly wrong. But what was wrong? That was the big question.
It’s hard, as well as stressful to parents when your child can’t tell you what is wrong and you can’t seem to figure it out.
Greg’s been crying for five (5) days now and nothing we do seems to help. On Monday, Feb. 4th I called his physician and asked for more test to be ran on Greg. The out come of the test showed Greg’s sinuses were infected. What a relief, we thought! We thought we had the answer we were looking for but wait a minute. Greg’s had many infected sinuses through out the years and it has never done him this bad before. Greg continued crying, so as parents we took it upon ourselves to take Greg to another hospital. By now, we pretty much figured it had to be his shunt by the way he was crying, arching his head back, real spastic as well as sweating.
We knew it wasn’t just a sinus infection.
We left that following morning at 5:30am. Took him to University Hospital up in Augusta Georgia. Augusta is a four (4) hour drive for us. On the way, we called his shunt doctor, Dr. Volcan. Greg was taken to the Emergency Room and Dr. Volcan orders a CT scan of the head as well as a few other tests. The good news was the shunt that was already in his head was still working fine. The bad news, Greg, not only had pneumonia but he had a very large cyst on the back of his brain, on his brain stem. This CYST, what the doctor called, and cystic mass in the posterior fossa possibly related to the 4th ventricle.
Now we knew why he was crying so much.
Meanwhile at the ER, Greg appeared to have stop breathing and would not respond to his dad and oxygen had to be given to him. Because of this cyst and its location Greg would have to under go surgery and another shunt would have to be placed in his head. Making him have two (2) shunts in his head now. It’s very dangerous because of the location of the cyst.
Greg was admitted into the University Hospital. The following day Wed., Feb. 6 he had surgery. The second shunt was placed. Greg was placed in the NICU and now was on a ventilator and heavy medication. He stayed in the NICU for 3 days.
Greg was released from the hospital on Sunday, Feb. 10th
We thought everything would be fine now but Greg started crying again. Tuesday, Feb 12th called Dr. Volcan and surgery was set up for the following morning, Wed., Feb 13th. Greg had what was called an “Entrapped 4th Ventricle” (In other words his new shunt was clogged up). Greg went through the surgery fine but yet something still wasn’t right. Greg continued crying and still spastic. Another CT scan was ordered.
The CT scan showed that his new shunt was clogged up, yet again.
Dr. Volcan called another doctor at the children’s hospital, Dr. Lee at Medical College of Georgia (MCG).
Greg was transported by ambulance to MCG that following night.
The following day, Greg had a MRI done and surgery was scheduled for Monday. That meant Greg had to tolerate three (3) more days of pain. Several different medications were given to Greg over the next few days to help ease his pain. ( Morphine, Chloral Hydrate 500mg and Valium)
Greg was also put on Baclofen for his spasticity. Spasticity is increased muscle tone. Injury to the brain or spinal cord may cause spasticity.
Monday, Feb. 18th Greg had another MRI and the third surgery on his shunt. Greg was in surgery for almost four (4) hours. This surgery took longer to perform
because they had to first put some type of metal equipment on Greg’s head, do the MRI and calculate by computer exactly where they would be going into the brain. This shunt was put in on the top of his head and the tubing running down to the cyst on the back of his brain and more tubing going down into his chest cavity in order to drain the fluid off his brain.
Surgery went fine. Greg has had so much pressure on his brain for so long causing him to have terrible headaches. Now he seems to be having headaches because of the pressure on his head is so low. Greg is still not his self and I honestly don’t think he’ll ever be the same again.
Tuesday, Feb. 19th another CT scan was ordered and everything seems to be all right and the new shunt was working fine. Greg was able to go home on Wed., Feb. 20th.
|
|