On We Go - Scan pics and news

We had a follow up today with Meagan's Neurosurgeon, Dr. R.  Meagan had been increasingly fussy since her last shunt adjustment, and had also started hitting herself in the head!  She was also shaking her head side to side in her nap nanny.  Dr. R ordered another CT scan to make sure her vents hadn't ballooned up and were causing her pressure or discomfort.  Her CT scan today showed ZERO movement in her ventricles.  Dr. R said this is both a good and bad thing.  Obviously good because we dont' want them to get really huge again and cause her problems... but it's also bad because with her skull fused, she still is at a higher pressure, and no change in the ventricles means they are not ballooning up like we originally thought.  In any case, we discussed the pros and cons of changing her shunt again... but we decided in the end to let her ride out this setting a while longer.  She is already going to have a lot of change with her surgery, so why not leave everything else the same.  I am totally comfortable with this decision. Plus, she has had several pop up seizures this past week, which could very well be the culprit of her bad behavior.  But with the recent shunt increase, we had to rule that out as a cause first.  If she is still fussier than normal, seizing, or banging her head, we may follow up with the Neurologist and see if her meds need to be tweaked.

We moved on to surgery talk.  September 4th is still the day. Meagan still has had no change in her skull bones since they upped her shunt pressure so it is definitely "official" now that we are moving forward with the procedure. We got all our instructions, what time to get there, and when our pre-op appointments are with anesthesia, etc..etc... We should expect 3-4 days in the hospital, and then have a post-op appointment scheduled two weeks afterwards. We talked about details of the surgery, and what to expect with recovery. All in all, it was a great appointment.

With that, I'll leave you with a few images.  I realized it's been a while since I posted any of Meagan's scans, so here are a few of her recent ones.

First, Meagan's CT from birth: (see all the black? Yep. That's fluid)

Now Meagan's CT scan from January (left) compared to her CT scan from today (right).  Definitely some good brain growth going on.

And finally, two images from the 3D reconstruction of her skull.  You can see in the first 3 of her plates that are severely overlapped and now fused together.  In the second photo, you can see where her shunt enters her skull.

And to end on a completely happy note, Meagan's Godfather, her Uncle Mike, just came home from Afghanistan!!! We are thankful for his service in protecting our freedoms here at home, and also very thankful he came back to his wife and daughters safe and sound!