Thursday, January 8, 2004 5:24 PM CST

Aidan had his surgery yesterday to externalize his VP shunt. It went well. He was quite cranky and uncomfortable when he first came to in the PICU, but since then, Tylenol has kept the pain away. Today he is in a good mood, playing in his bed with the toys and crayons the Childlife specialist brought, eating bits and pieces of hospital food from trays, and drinking quite a lot of Sprite from 5 cc syringes.

He took until almost midnight to fall asleep last night, which made for a long day since his mom and dad had been up since 4 am the morning before. Aidan's little brother Paddy and I slept at the Koret Family House (similar to Ronald MacDonald House but closer to the hospital) while Kevin stayed in the PICU room with Aidan. Maybe he even slept a little in the sleep chair the PICU staff brought for him : )

Now the neurosurgeons are slowly trying to wean Aidan off the shunt by raising its calibrator higher and higher on a pole so that it takes more pressure to release the spinal fluid from his brain. Basically, only time will tell whether Aidan can lose the shunt for good.

I had better go now because Paddy is in the Family Resource Center with me and being a 1 year old, is starting to want to explore. Paddy is thoroughly enjoying himself here with all the people to smile at him and spoil him with compliments.

More later,
Willa (Aidan's mom)