Home with More Wait and See

Here is Mason this morning, happy to be home.  We came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon.  The MRI showed a working shunt – for now.  Mason has a checkup in two weeks with the neurosurgeon.

We also got a referral from Wound Care while we were at the hospital to see if Mason’s plastic surgeon Dr. P thinks he can close the wound on Mason’s bottom.  It has filled in from the bottom up really well but isn’t closing.  I really have no idea if Dr. P will be able to close it.  It would be great if he could, because while we would still have some healing to do and it would probably mean another surgery, it would be a step towards complete healing.  We have been dealing with this wound since July.  Multiple bandage changes each day has become routine and Mason is very patient.  It would be wonderful to get past this though!

Mason is cheerful this morning and slept very well in his own bed.  He was really miserable yesterday evening at home, crying and oh so tired.  I expect to see that again today sometime because his body has taken a huge hit with the shunt revision.  We’ll aim for a really good nap this afternoon and see what happens.

So far he seems to have about the same function as before the surgery.  His balance is a bit off what he had before surgery when sitting, but will probably get back to normal soon.  His foot and hip are both still contracted and can’t flex into neutral positions.  I don’t know if that will be something we can adjust with a lot of physical therapy or not.  He may need foot and hip surgery first.  Of course he also may end up needing the small tethering of his spinal cord fixed.  Like so many things on this Spina Bifida journey it is another ‘Wait and see”.  

Life’s never dull around here, that’s for sure!