Back to the same old routine…

I sincerely thought Chad would be feeling better by now. It’s almost been a week since his surgery, even though it doesn’t technically feel like it!

He’s spent quite a bit of time in bed over the last few days. Yesterday, the girls came home from a weekend away, and he’s been up more since their arrival. We’re (all the girls in the house) trying to stay quiet for his sake, but you can imagine how difficult that is as Christmas looms near.

By the way, a HUGE Thank You to Nana, Shannon & Todd for letting the girls hang out with you all this weekend so Chad & I could get some rest. It was just what we needed!

On Saturday, he was out of bed for a total of 4 hours. Four.
On Sunday, he was up for about six.
On Monday, the girls came home and he was up nearly 8 hours.
And today he joined us to do a little shopping – just to get out of the house. So far, he was up for about 5 hours today. He’s in bed now though, and I hope I didn’t tire him out too much!

His head still hurts. Badly.
He is talking a bit more, which I was “confusing” for him feeling better. He warned me not to do that – because he’s certainly not feeling any better.
That’s not what I wanted to hear!

He is starting to feel less sore from the surgery itself, so I guess we will soon know what we’re left with — pain-wise.
Many people have asked us how confident Dr. T was with this new shunt relieving all the pressure and headaches Chad was having….Well, let’s just say Dr. T was confident it would help. And we had to sign a waiver pre-surgery stating that we understood the new shunt may or may not relieve Chad’s intense headaches.
So far, it’s not helping.
However, we may just need to adjust the settings on the shunt. And that may take some time to find the right setting that provides a healthy balance between diverting spinal fluid, relieving headaches, and reducing fatigue.

I was really hoping we would feel better by Christmas and we all could have the best gift imaginable this year.
I don’t think that’s going to happen, necessarily. But we do have the gift of knowing that we tried everything available to us. And that’s a pretty good feeling, too.

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One Response to Back to the same old routine…

  1. kellykagan says:

    Keep being positive. His brain is still trying to recover with the new shunt. It does take time to get the corrrect setting. We would take multiple images for the drs until the settings were correct. Also, sometimes pts would come back for more images due to the drs adjusting the shunt's settings again.
    My prayers are with all of you guys. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

    Kelly Ann Molinar- Kagan
    (cousin in AZ)

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