Where Am I Now?

Alright, so most of you know by now that we have been in the hospital with Dawson. We were driving to Utah for a quick trip for Ryan's brothers wedding. Made it. It was lovely. And fun. Then on Saturday night Dawson puked a few times.

On Sunday he spent the majority of the day puking. Couldn't keep anything down. I called my friend that is an ER doc at Primary Childrens. She was working. She said not to come in if I can avoid it. She said it was so busy that we would sit for HOURS without getting a room.

So, Ryan slept upstairs on the couch while Dawson slept/puked. I slept downstairs trying to get as much rest as possible because we knew the next day would be a long one.

SIX hours in the ER...what more can I say! After all of that a CT was done and the ventricles in Dawson's brain were WAY too big. Shunt malfunction. UGH!

Dawson was taken straight from the ER to the Operation room. Dr. Walker once told me that the swelling in the brain is extremely painful. He said that if you take the worst migraine you have had and times it by 10 it would be close to what he was experiencing. Pain so bad you can't help but puke. My poor baby!

Dawson came back from surgery doing well. He was pretty out of it. They gave him Morphine and after a LONG LONG day I headed home to get more sleep for the next day. Dawson slept soundly that night.

The next day was full of tests to see if his throwing up tore open a surgery that had previously been done to prevent him from doing so. We were 100% sure that he had. So was the doctor. We were all making plans to go through the surgery again. It is a rough one! My dad told me he prayed so hard that his surgery would still be intact. His prayers were answered!

Later that night Dawson was taken in to surgery again. This time to get his port a cath. (A more permanent IV). The surgery went well. He was set to go home the next day, as long as we would agree to stick around until Monday just to make sure. You see, it took 26 shunts to get the last one to work. Now we can't help but feel a little nervous about this one not sticking. We hope it does. We pray it will. We also have to watch for fevers. Fevers would be a sign of shunt infection, which would make it so we would be here for another 5 weeks....OH MY!

So, we are crossing our fingers and praying like crazy. So far so good. Dawson did have a fever this morning, but it was managed with tylenol. He has a wicked cough and RSV is a concern. The hospital was FULL of it. However, we are hopeful!

Thanks for all the prayers and kind words! We love you all so much!