Sassy new 'do!

Post-surgery, Shelby is sassier than ever. Now she has a haircut to go with her attitude!

Mommy won't be torturing her with pigtails and braids for a few months which is a bonus as far as Shelby is concerned.

Thanks to the talented Tena at Ananda in Asheville. She does a great job cutting a moving target's hair. Shelby was a bit scared at first, but once she realized that Tena wasn't there to poke or prod her with needles, she did really well. And as Tena told me, the asymmetrical cut is in, so Shelby is at the height of fashion. :)

Home sweet home!

We got home yesterday afternoon and Shelby and I are so glad to be back here with Harding and Trip. On the morning after Shelby's surgery, she was still only content burrowed into my arms. By that evening, she was trying to crawl across the hospital bed, demanding her toys and her ipad, and just generally raising hell. I am so glad that my cousin Katy was there with us to help me keep Shelby entertained. Anytime the door would open to our room after a soft knock, Shelby would get really still and say, "Oh, shoot." Yep, back to her old self! She learned really quickly what people were there to play with her and what people were there to mess with her. Anytime medical personnel came into the door, she would burrow into me again trying to hide and I can't say I blame her. Yesterday morning was spent waiting around for all the paperwork and procedures to be complete that would allow us to be discharged. As we were walking out of the peds floor and the hospital itself around mid-day, Shelby alternated between saying and waving, "bye bye" and shouting, "hooray". It was pretty cute! When we got home, she went right for all of her favorite toys and was elbow crawling slowly all over the place playing with them. In the past few weeks, she had mostly resorted to commando crawling with her belly dragging across the floor. I don't know if that is because her shunt was slowly failing or if she preferred that faster travel mode. Now she is back on her elbows with her belly off the floor. I am relieved about this because the neurosurgeon told us her abdomen would be pretty sore for awhile (she has an incision there too). That's all for now, I want to get some snuggle time in with Harding while Shelby and Trip are still sleeping. I'll try to put some pictures up later today though. P.S. Shelby has a haircut appointment scheduled for Monday morning.

Surgery, Recovery, etc

Shelby was sleepy and subdued all day yesterday, but her sassiness came out anytime a nurse had to mess with her. She actually won the catheter battle with two nurses--shocking them (but not me) with her strength. We waited a long time for an available OR yesterday, and they finally got Shelby in around 3:50 in the afternoon. The surgery went well. The catheter part of the valve in Shelby's old shunt was completely blocked and there was fluid back-up in other parts of the shunt so they decided to replace the whole thing to be safe. The new shunt is similar to the old one, but it has a non-syphoning valve that is better for standing upright since Shelby is moving in that direction developmentally.

Shelby is a bit sleepy, and obviously in some pain but has managed to sleep most of the night. She has been drinking water and eating bites of applesauce. We'll try something more filling later today. She keeps pulling at her bandages, and I think that might continue as she regains strength. Also, she has a new haircut, where they shaved around the incision that I am trying to not get too sad about. She needed this surgery and everything went well, that is the important thing--hair grows.

Trip just left to go back to Asheville. He is out of vacation time (thanks to three days of jury duty last week) and we didn't want another day without pay. Plus Harding will probably appreciate him being home tonight. My cousin Katy, who lives here in Durham is coming to keep me company (and help occupy Shelby) today. If Shelby continues to do well, she will be discharged tomorrow and we can go home. I am looking forward to a return to normalcy, although Shelby can't go back to school for 2 weeks. Thanks to everyone for the prayers, thoughts, phone calls, texts, and emails. They help so much!

Here at Duke awaiting surgery

After a series of unexplained calamities that kept us from getting out of Asheville (we are not happy with our experience at the Mission ER), we were finally transported via ambulance to Duke Medical Center. We arrived around 1:30 a.m. and Shelby was assessed and monitored (she is stable but has some irregular heartbeat stuff going on) while the chief peds neurosurgeon did an emergency surgery on another two-year-old. Dr. Fuchs is napping now till the daytime OR folks show up at 6:30. They are going to try to work Shelby's shunt revision in wherever they can find a spot sometime this morning. Trip is napping with Shelby in her bed right now and I will try to nap as well as soon as I eat these crackers the nurse just brought me. We feel good about the care that Shelby is receiving now and am so glad we're finally at Duke. Will update when she comes out of surgery.

Shunt malfunction

Bad news...we are at the Asheville ER awaiting helicopter transport to Duke Hospital. It appears that Shelby's shunt is failing. She will most likely be having a shunt revision surgery sometime tonight. We will update when we can but in the meantime please keep Shelbs in your prayers!