Shunt Removal Surgery

Surgery was scheduled for this morning to remove the shunt. The doctor did find some elevated white blood cell counts in his head by the shunt. The surgery took a little over a hour. Afterwards the doctor told me he had to leave a catheter in his head because if he removed there would be bleeding by his brain which is not a good. But otherwise everything went according to plan. The neurosurgeon said he thinks the infection was in Archie's abdomen not his head. After Archie was put back into ICU I left to go get some more clothes because two days worth of clothes won't cut it. Plus Archie previously has slept the day or surgery and doesn't eat anything. Well, not today! He was up all dAy long with a couple of short naps plus he was eating normal food. He did say that the pain in his abdomen is a whole lot. Which is fabulous news! He had a headache but I think that is to be expected if they do surgery on your head. thank you for the prayers!

Thanks to Chad, Aaron and my sisters for coming to visit Archie.

Surgery

There was an infection in his head and his body so Archie is currently in surgery. They are pulling his shunt out and will put an external shunt in temporarily. He will be put in the ICU again and be given antiobiotics to clear up the infection. After the infection is cleared up they will put a new shunt in. Just like they did last year.

Back to Baylor Again

Since Archie was released from the hospital three weeks ago he has had tenderness on his head and abdomen pain. He finished his 14 days of antibiotics on Wednesday or Thursday and since then the pain and swelling have gotten worse. On Sunday I urged Archie to call his neurosurgeon to see what he thought and the conversation was not very productive. Monday the pain in his stomach got worse so I had him call the Infectious Disease doctor who said he thinks we should go back to Baylor since the symptoms were better while on antibiotics but got worse wafterwards. So we packed up and headed to the Baylor ER last night after dinner. After we were assigned a room we proceeded to hangout all night in the ER. Archie had blood tests, X-rays and CT scans throughout the wait. I headed out around 5 am to try to get a couple of hours of sleep. Right after I left Archie had a lumbar puncture so they could test his spinal fluid. I showed up back at the hospital a few hours later and he was still hanging out in the ER. He was eventually moved to a regular room and we waited to see his team of doctors. He got a new doctor, the internal medicine doctor, we saw her mid morning. We waited all day long to see his Infectious Disease doctor and his neurosurgeon. I had literally told my mom that I didn't think the neurosugeron was going to show up since it was 7 pm when he walked it. Archie got a little chuckle out of that. Archie has an infection of some kind because his white blood cells are elevated. The neurosurgeon pulled some fluid from his head to test. If it is infected they will have to pull the shunt and put a new one in which will mean some weeks in the hospital but we have to wait for the results.

Released!

Archie has been released from Baylor!!!!   The infectious disease doctor said he had cellulitis which is a skin infection on the scar on his head.  Why it started there he does not know.  His white blood cell count is back to normal and the swelling on his head is decreasing.  So we got sent home with an antibiotic prescription for him to take. The neurosurgeon said we are good to go home.  Archie was released without any limitations so we are back to work tomorrow.  Thank you for all the prayers and support!

End of the Day Recap for the Infection

The decision is to keep Archie overnight on antibiotics to try to clear the infection.  His swelling on his head has gone down a bit since last night.  The infectious disease doctor said the X-rays they took from the neck to abdomen look good.  He was going to let the neurosurgeon look at the skull X-ray since he is the expert of that.  So we will be hanging out at Baylor at least for another day. He was moved from the ICU to the floor which is great news.  I will update the blog tomorrow and keep everyone updated.

Infection

Archie's scar on his head was tender to touch and swollen last night so at 10 pm we headed to Centennial Frisco ER to get checked out.  They did a CT scan, called Archie's neurosurgeon and shipped him down to Baylor downtown via ambulance.  This morning the neurosurgeon checked the CT scans and tried to get fluid out from around his shunt without success which is a good thing!   So we have been moved out of ICU to the floor to wait to hear from the infectious disease doctor to find out what is going on.  I will let you know the results when we hear from him but wanted people to know what is going on.

Hello!

Sorry that it has been so long since the last post.  Life around our house it very boring (which I totally appreciate).  I mean we both work full-time and our weekends are pretty boring these days.  Archie has been traveling for work randomly.  Like last week he was in Austin working on a customer's house on Lake Austin.  I'm calling this year the year of travel for us, although most of Archie's travels are work related and there is not much time for enjoyment.   I think after all the time spent at the hospital and at home we are ready to travel.  

Last weekend was Mothers Day and we spent a day with each of our mothers.  We went to Wichita Falls and had lunch with Archie's mom, step dad, Granny, brother, sister-in-law and our niece Alana.  We ate a nice restaurant called Pasquals which was higher end and delicious!  We will have to visit it again in the future for sure.  Then on Sunday we had a crawfish boil at my parents' house which was amazing!  We are thankful for our mothers!