On Monday we had our annual Neurosurgery follow up appointment. We always have mixed feelings about this appointment, last year's was typical, this years was not.
The day did not start out typical. The 75 minute drive turned out to be 125 minutes, Toronto rush hour is never fun. Luckily we were only late for Summer's X-ray, time easily made up, then Neuro clinic was running 45 minutes behind. That IS typical.
The resident came in and gave Summer the once over and shortly thereafter Dr. Dirks and 3 of his residents came to discuss Summer's progress.
He started out asking if Summer was doing well developmentaly. Yes. Is she attending school? Yes. Summer was a little shy, as ususal, but then did start to 'perform' a bit.
Dr. Dirks then cut to the chase. He said the CT Scan showed that her shunt is not well placed and that it is likely not working.
You could have knocked us over with a feather.
He squeezed the bulb on the back of her neck and it failed to 'refill'.
How long has this been the case? We don't know. Summer has not had a CT since she was 6 months old, and has not shown any sign of intercranial pressure (vomiting, eyes drifting, decline in school performance, inability to concentrate, headache.)
Dr. Dirks reminded us that "we treat the patient, not the CT image". There is a small chance that she is able to manage to reabsorb some CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) on her own.
He also mentioned that her ventricle size is up, but that sometimes they reset at a larger size.
Our next step is to see Summer's ophthalmologist in July for an eye check-up, and she will look closely for signs of pressure. We will also have an MRI in September as Neuro would like to see her every three months for the time being.
No comments:
Post a Comment