Zander's Update

Well, I finally paid the $20 for the yearly photo storage upgrade so now I can post some photos!

Last Thursday, Zander had an appointment with his neurosurgeon to get CT scans to make sure everything is still working properly. We haven't had any outward signs of any problems, but it had been a couple years since we had been, so prompted by a request from the school district's nurse, we went ahead and had a check up.

Everything on his CT scans looked okay. His ventricles were a little bit bigger when compared to the scans done in 2005, but nothing significant. Then the PA began doing some tests with Zander and asking questions. She tried feeling the cord which runs from the top of his head, behind his ear, down his neck and ends in his abdomen. She got as far as his ribcage and couldn't feel it any longer. Just then a light bulb went off because just 2 days prior, Zander had trouble sleeping because his ribs hurt. We aren't sure if it's just a coincidence or not, but that's about the spot that the x-ray showed his tube breaking off. (we got x-rays just after the PA's exam to be sure).

Here is Zander laying in the "big doughnut" waiting for the CT scan.

At first when I told him to close his eyes, he closed them so tight it looked like he was going to strain something. I told him to just relax and close his eyes normally, so he did and the CT scan was done before he knew it.

Here are the cross sections of Zander's brain from the CT scans. The little white dot on the bottom three images on the right side is a cross section of his shunt.

After our appointment we rushed down to X-ray before they closed for the night. Zander did such a good job of holding still...as if he had a choice, the radiologist must have told him to stay real still about 50 times or more!

Here is Zander's skull. It's hard to see in this small photo, but his shunt is visible.

Here is the abdominal section. I could see the extra length of tubing coiled up inside, so I assumed everything was a-okay, but unfortunately we got a call the next day and his tubing did break, so he will be going in for surgery in about a week to have it replaced. They are going to leave the other tubing in there, which the PA assured me is just fine.

His time in the O.R. should be about an hour, but the actual surgery should be less than that. I am not really to anxious thus far. I know from experience that God has everything under control and this is just something that we just need to trust Him to work out all the details.

We haven't told Zander, but plan on telling him sometime this weekend. No need to get him all worked up all week when it's not necessary.

Anyway, that's the scoop...After a long day at the hospital, I treated all three kids to a root beer float at the A&W in Sandy. The kids thought it was great that the girl came out on roller skates to deliver our treat.

I hope to be better at blogging...although I still don't have a camera and have been borrowing cameras from just about everyone I know. We did order one and it should be here sometime this week!

For those of you who wanted to see his hydrocephalus history, you can see more pictures from the Facebook link here. Click on the photos to read the captions.