Okay, so I guess that Zach does grunt a lot but this post isn't really about grunting, it just rhymed.
When he was about a month old, the area around his shunt was really swollen and then shunt itself would come out and then slip back into place. It's under his skin, so we could just see that it was slipping out. We took him into the doctors and went to the Spina Bifida Clinic at Primary Children's. They did an x-ray but everything seemed to be okay and it was getting better so they decided to just wait and see. Well, it did get better and he never had any signs of shunt malfunction which include projectile vomiting, excessive sleeping, excessive crying or "sunsetting" eyes. His head circumference was always great at his check-ups and we were counting ourselves lucky because he had avoided any problems.
We got a letter a month or two ago that the kind of shunt he had was being recalled because the catheter that goes into the ventricles in the brain could become disconnected from the resevoir. They didn't expect it to really increase the chance of malfunction but the company was offering a free CAT scan to double check everything. Life was busy and it took me awhile to get around to calling and when I finally did, they got us in that Friday.
So he went to the hospital here in Provo the Friday before Easter for the scan. They said the neurosurgeon should get back to us the next week. An hour later we were all loaded in the car getting ready to pull out of the garage to go to my parent's house for the weekend. That's when the doctor called and said that out of all the the scan's they'd done, his was the first to be disconnected.
We met with him two weeks later to decide if we should just wait and see how he did with the shunt disconnected or if we should just replace it. We decided that because his ventricles were "moderately enlarged" and because he had very obviously needed the shunt when he was born, that it would be better to just replace it now instead of waiting until he became sick.
We went in the next Monday morning (last week) and he had the shunt replaced. It was a very quick procedure but they had him stay they night to monitor him. He did really well but was a vey sad baby when it was over. He was just sobbing like his little heart was broken. All he wanted was for me to hold him and to eat. They ended up giving him some morphine because he was in quite a bit of pain and he had to be on oxygen that day and through the night. The next morning he was doing great though and they sent us home. He's doing really well and hopefully we'll be able to bathe him tomorrow. He has three incisions; one on his head, behind his ear and on his tummy. We can't get any of the wet and even though we've tried to give him sponge baths, he is still a pretty stinky little boy!
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Because Zach has spina bifida, he automatically qualifies for Early Intervention which is a program where different therapists come to our house. Kids Who Count is who does it in our area. They came and did his initial evaluation when he was about a month old and from there got us set up with a therapist. We started out with an occupational therapist, Mary. She comes twice a month for an hour each time. After a few months, Kim, the physical therapist started to come. She also comes twice a month. We've worked a lot on pushing up with his arms and lifting his head and sitting and rolling over. Zach starting to really sit by himself when he was about 9 1/2-10 months old, but he still has to support himself on his arms. He can roll over if he really wants to, but it usually has to be a pretty good incentive (like food).
This is a great program that will continue until he is three. The services are adapted as his needs change. He had a vision therapist come a couple of times when he was about three months old but those issues were resolved and she didn't need to come anymore. It is so nice that they come to our house instead of us having to run around for everything.