Upcoming surgery

I still haven't figured out how to move these pictures around to the right order, so today you get what you get. Lily can't get enough of her brother. She is meticulous about clean hands (she'll move things with her wrists if she has just washed her hands and is going to touch him.) She's a great helper.

We've got to get him in the preemie size clothes before they don't fit anymore.

Lily's first time holding Kian.

Kate's first time holding Kian.

Look at that noggin. It's huge! Nearly 40 cm around, way above average. We occasionally call him "Heed." Not for long, though:)

Kate in our new playhouse. Her head is in the 95th percentile, so Kian is in good company.

First day home.

Two of our favorite nurses, Katie and Jess.

Right as we came in the door. Kate was so excited. She hadn't seen him in about 6 weeks.

First time strapped in, leaving the hospital.

We have a picture like this with each of the girls as we were leaving the hospital just after they were born. They are both screaming loudly for their pictures. What a good happy boy we have!

We went to see Kian's neurosurgeon at Primary's Thursday to follow-up on his head. It was pretty clear to us and to the doctor that he needs a shunt. His head was still growing pretty quickly, and his eyes were rolling down almost constantly. So we have been scheduled for a VP shunt placement Monday morning. While we were there, he got a head CT and a consult for a circumcision. We figure it'd be nicest for him to have that done while he's asleep. The shunt is a conduit from the ventricles where the cerebrospinal fluid is made, through a tiny tube that runs behind his ear down to his abdomen. In the abdomen the fluid would be absorbed into the body. The shunt will be pressure regulated to keep the pressure in his brain at a normal level. The shunt stays in place until it needs to be replaced, due to infection or blockage or other problems, but in his type of hydrocephalus, those problems are more rare than other types of hydrocephalus. They coil the tube up in his abdomen so it grows with him.


The CT scan. It took about 2 minutes, and he slept through the whole thing.