CP Shunt Adjustment

Jaden and his Daddy....this was when Jaden's fever was high and all he wanted was for us to just hold him...
Our little angel...

2 months and 1 day ago Jaden underwent his 15th major surgery to place a shunt in his brain called a CP shunt...He had a cyst that was sitting right on the brain stem and compressing his spinal cord...the shunt was placed to keep the spinal fluid from just accumulating at the cyst...last Friday Jaden came down with what appeared to be just a virus and teething....102 fever and could tell he just was not feeling good.....So I took him to the pediatrician hoping she would tell me that Jaden had an ear infection or something simple, but instead his white blood count was elevated, ears looked great, flu test came back negative....So that called for a trip to Kosair to have his shunts checked for possible infection or malfunction....

After arriving at the hospital Jaden's fever had broken and he was soaking wet with sweat....He had to get an IV poke for all the blood work that had to be done...Head Ct....Shunt Series...Chest X-Rays....the whole line yards.....The doctor came in and shared with us that all Jaden's blood work came back perfect, exactly where it needed to be for him (normal is 6,000 but Jaden's was 10,000 which his will always be higher because all the foreign devices in his little body) so James and I was so relieved that no possible infection was brewing...He went on to discuss Jaden's VP Shunt and how everything in the brain looked exactly the way it was suppose to....However he went on to say Jaden's CP Shunt appears not to be working...He went back to Jaden's last head CT on November 14th 1 day after the shunt was placed and compared both CT's....He had already paged Jaden's Neuro Surgeon to let him know what all was going on...Dr. Moriarty called and said that we needed to bring Jaden in to his office to have the setting on the shunt adjusted...

With all this being said, the fever and what ever happened at the pediatricians office to make Jaden's blood appear to be abnormal was all of the Lord because Jaden was not due to have a new head CT until 6 months post-op....Now we know that 2 months and 1 day after surgery the shunt setting was not right...

So today we took Jaden to Louisville to his Neuro Surgeon's Office to have his CP Shunt adjusted...They adjusted it to the lowest pressure setting which means the cyst will be able to drain the most...If this does not work then he will have to have another brain surgery...We are praying so hard that this will help and that the cyst will be able to drain better with the new setting...We are trusting that the Lord has taken care of this by allowing us to take Jaden in to have all this checked out 4 months sooner than he was suppose to...

Jaden had a hard time at the office just because he thinks that every time he goes there something bad is gonna happen to him because that's all he has ever known...The magnet that was placed on the shunt to reprogram it was not painful at all which I'm very thankful for the technology without it Jaden wouldn't be here....but just having to hold him because he really did think that the Doctor was going to do something bad was a horrible experience in itself...James and I had already made a list of all our questions for the surgeon to answer because we knew we wouldn't be able to get them answered because the sooner we get out of the office the sooner we know that Jaden will calm down....So he's gonna be calling us in a couple of days with our answers....

Please remember to pray that the new setting will help keep the cyst drained....

Our pastor shared this verse with us before we drove up to his appointment today to be a help to us....

And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8