my thoughts and prayers are with you and your son, el. i hope only for the best.

Sending as many positive vibes as i can el, Its clear to see your son is loved dearly by both you and your ex wife.

best wishes

God Bless you and your son.

I look at my four-year old son and my three-year old daughter and cannot imagine carrying the burden that you now bear.

Thank you for including us in your thoughts and sharing this story - you and your son are very much in each of our thoughts as we offer up prayers, hope and goodwill to your family.

Please post progress reports as often as you are able to - I have a good feeling that you and your son will be sharing many more joyous Christmases together!

Thinking good and healing thoughts for you both....

The Briefest of Updates
 

I spent the whole weekend in his room with him. He's not doing very well, but the doctors are not worried. It is assumed to be normal to have several days to several weeks adjustment after a shunt revision.

His behavior and expressed pain experience are rather unsettling for me, though. His congnition is extremely poor. Truth be known, this is really, really difficult. I'm frightened at the thought that he might not come out of this as well as he went in. He cannot afford to lose much more of what he had going for him cognition and memory-wise.

I'm told not to panic yet, and I'm not, but no one said I couldn't be frightened and worried.

Hang in there. I'm glad you can be there with him during this.

This sucks, spode. I can't imagine how helpless you feel. The seemingly random affliction like Steve has does not seem fair. I am sure that you may rely on the positive energy of all the people that have taken the time to read your post about the situation he's in, even if some don't feel comfortable in expressing it because they may not know you, or whatever. I have never been in a situation like you're in, and hope I never am, so any advice i might offer is a bit empty. That said, however, I would offer one little thing:

Try to take from this whatever positive you can find. I firmly believe things happen for reasons. The pain he suffers must have an equal and oppisite flipside .....somewhere........ I hope you can find it.

Ljim

'Spode, both you and your son will be in my thoughts... if there's anything you need along with all the positive energy that I can manage to scape up, just say the word.

Brief Update Update
 

Almost as soon as I finished typing the last entry, my ex called from the hospital, saying "I think there's someone here you'd like to talk to."

It was my kid, sounding much the same as usual. It seems the doctor, following a CAT scan this AM, decided that the shunt was set to allow too much pressure in his head, and so he tapped it (read: stuck a giant fucking needle into his shunt assembly and sucked some cerebrospinal fluid out of his head), and then reset the shunt pressure (a new design which allows different pressures to be set via magnetic induction, externally).

Steve slept for two or three hours, woke up hungry and communicative. I wept...

Now, if we don't end up with a problem from *too little* pressure (this can be equally devastating, and was what caused his original brain injury in the first place, actually), things are looking up!

Thanks again for all the good vibes. I know in my heart it makes a difference!

that is OUTSTANDING news!!:D everything will turn out fine, elspode. i can relate to the worry, pain, and sense of helplessness. my dad had 2 major surgeries back to back a year ago last june. he had us all worried. once again, congrats!!

hear that, spode? cougar has a heart-on for you!

Nah, its for my kid...he is a looker, that guy.

As of 5:30 this evening, all is still well. Keep up the vibes. I'm home catching up on email, laundry, and soon, sleep.