We are happy to say that Vince has been improving a lot lately. Since last night, he has been pretty alert and has been doing very good eating on his own so they were able to take out his feeding tube, shut the IV off and take him off of all the monitors. They want to keep us in here still tonight to make sure that he is getting used to the siezure medication and that he continues to eat well and fill up his diapers. Right now, we are hoping to be released to go home tomorrow if all goes well.
The doctors think that his siezure was caused by spots of blood that were on his brain in combination with the drastic change in pressure when the shunt was put in. The bleeding may have been caused by the surgery and the surgeon said that it is something that does happen, but Vince's may have bled a little more and the blood irritated the brain and caused the siezures. They verified that the bleeding was stopped, but it will take a while for the blood to go away, so Vince will have to be on anti-siezure medication for a while until that clears up. We will come back in about a month for a follow-up to see how it is progressing. Another thing that may have had an effect was the change in pressure after the shunt was put in. When the fluid was building up in the brain, there was a lot of pressure and when the shunt was put in, all the fluid drained and the pressure decreased rapidly. That sudden change in pressure may have irritated the brain and helped lead to the siezures. According to the surgeon, these are things that are not super common, but do happen in about 10% of cases. Once the blood is dispersed and the pressure equalizes, Vince should not have any more problems like this and they don't expect any long-term affects from it either.
He had a good visit last night and this morning from Grandma and Grandpa Santini and Uncle Chris. We've got a busy day tomorrow as the physical therapist will be stopping by to assess his movements and also the surgeon will be coming in to remove the stitches from his head and abdomen from the shunt surgery. It's been a really long couple of days and it will be nice to be home again finally. We'll update again soon.
Nick, Andrea and Vince
I love the picture of Vince smiling!! He's ready to go home, too!! We hope that he is progressing well and will be released soon. You are fortunate to have a great medical facility to take care of this precious little guy. You all sure are in great hands!! Take care........Love, Aunt Mary
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