Ready To Go Home

Zachary had a great night.  He slept very well (as usual), and his appetite has returned as well.  The doctors came by this morning and gave him the all clear, so after his 10am antibiotics, we should begin the process of being discharged.  

Yesterday was a very long day, but as we mentioned, the surgery couldn't have gone better. Zachary was not allowed any food 6 hours prior to surgery, so we woke early and fed him at 4am.  All was well until we arrived at the hospital and began his prep for surgery.  The nurses had a very difficult time inserting an IV, and Zachary was very tired and hungry (not a good combination).  After an extended period of discomfort (aka screaming), he pretty much cried himself to sleep for about an hour.  The surgery was also delayed, adding further to his hunger pains, but he finally went into the OR around 10:45.

After surgery Dr. Handler met with us to discuss what he had discovered. It seems the catheter that runs into Zachary's ventricles (the rear parts of his brain) had been clogged up when the tissue in the ventricles began to grow around the shunt tubing.  Dr. Handler replaced this upper section of tubing, and all seems to be working wonderfully.  It is incredible how quickly his appearance has changed.  When Mommy and Daddy first saw Zach in the recovery room we immediately noticed his forehead was not as large or red as before, and his soft spot on top of his head is almost concave.  When the shunt is working, it's REALLY working.  Zachary has a pretty good sized incision on his head.  They went in through the old incision site, but increased its size slightly to accommodate the new procedure.  Other than that he has his IV in his arm, but no other incisions, or areas of concern, which makes holding and feeding him much easier. 

Mommy and Daddy have been passing the time blogging, watching the snow fall, and enjoying the comfortable confines of Zachary's room.  For those of you who may not know, Children's Hospital opened a beautiful new facility here a little over a year ago, so everything is state of the art, and modern, and new.  Zachary's room is on the 6th floor, in the neurology wing, and looks out towards the mountains (although we can't see them trough all the snow). It also has its own bathroom, shower, couch, fold out bed, LCD TV, Xbox, and PS3.  Sadly, Daddy has not been able to utilize the gaming systems, but we did watch Wall-E last night when the snow storm disabled the satellite reception on the TV.  A few door down the hall is the floor's game room, complete with a Wii, air hockey table, toys, tons of board games, books, movies, and stuffed animals.  It's great to see the kids who are here with smiles on their faces in that room. This truly is an amazing place where there are some incredible people who do great things, and we are extremely blessed to have it close by for Zach to receive the best care possible.  

The plan for tonight is drive home safely in the snow, get settled in back home, and rest, rest, rest.  We were somewhat bragging last week when we said Zach had no doctor's appointments, but boy did we more than make up for it this week!  Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes these past few days.  We are incredibly blessed and continue to pray in thanksgiving for all God has given us and all he has done in healing Zachary to this point.  Love, and God Bless - Brian + Kimmie