6 Days Post Op - LP Shunt Surgery

On Tuesday, February 19, 2013 Stephanie underwent Lumboperitoneal Shunt Surgery in order to assist in the drainage of excess cerebral spinal fluid from her brain.  There were three incisions - one on her spine where the catheter fed up through her spinal column, one on her side/hip where the actual valve is placed under the skin, and one on her abdomen where the catheter is fed in to her peritoneal cavity to drain the fluid which is reabsorbed by the body.

Surgery was roughly 2 hours long and she did very well.  She woke up from anesthesia without any complications and was trying to sit up immediately. We were transferred to a surgical ward and expected to stay in hospital for about 2-3 days.  The first night was a tough one and she was very uncomfortable.  It wasn't until 6 am the next day that she finally settled and slept solid all day with the help of morphine.  That night she threw up a bit and settled back down.  The following morning she was feeling much better and we were even released to go home to continue with recovery. 

Most days since she has been sleeping about 18 hours a day, being up for 2-3 hours a couple times per day.  The incisions were closed with dissolving stitches and seem to be healing well.  There is some bruising at each site but nothing extraordinary and swelling is minimal.  As I write this it is has been 6 days since surgery and today was the first day that she really seemed to be in pain or having some kind of symptoms.  I gave her some Tylenol 3, a good rest, and then some Coca Cola (caffeine) to help any low pressure symptoms or abdominal pain she may have been having.  The surgeon said signs of infection generally show up around 1 month after surgery, if at all.

We have a follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon and the neurologist on March 8, 2013 and will find out more about her recovery and future plans for the corpus callosotomy surgery and seizure control.

Here's hoping that this shunt is helpful for Stephanie by giving her some relief from the high pressure and maybe even some positive progress with her vision! (I have posted pictures in the page on the right.)