Accident & Emergency - Shunt Problems

Today we started with an early morning trip to A&E. We managed to time it quite well to get the Doctors after their ward round. We got there about 8.30 and the nearly the entire neurosurgical team and Niamh's very kind oncology registrar came down to see her at about 10.

We explained about her bump on her head being a little firmer each day, her cramps in her legs and not wanting to walk and possible headaches. In general she hadn't really been her self, it seemed something was up. Niamh's surgeons and Dr agreed and arranged for her to have a CT scan and x rays of her shunt to see if fluid was building up in her head and to see if they could see where her shunt was malfunctioning.

Niamh was really great for the CT Scan, she kept perfectly still and didn't cry at all. We'd been preparing her for it all morning and I think that helped, saying that she would lie down and asking her who's hand she would hold. Mummy and Daddy. If she could do that for the MRI scan that would be amazing, but perhaps 40 minutes in a super noisy room would be too much...

The rest of the day was spent waiting for the inevitable. There was some talk that maybe we were there for observation only but that was not to be true. It turns out Niamh is second on the list for surgery tomorrow when she will have her shunt revised. She will have a new VP shunt fitted (into the ventricle, the ones before were just subdural) and maybe one or both of the subdural shunts removed. The surgeons said it would depend very much on what they find when the test the pressures on the various catheters. In the end they would prefer to be left with no more than two catheters though.

There was also some talk of whether Niamh's cancer is progressing with the delays she is having in treatment and from reviewing the CT scan. It's early to say for sure but, needless to say, this is very worrying for us. Niamh may have an MRI very soon, tomorrow or next week or the one she has booked on the 18th. This should show a clearer picture than the CT scan today.

If everything goes perfectly Niamh should still be able to start her next round of chemotherapy next week.

Please keep Niamh in your thoughts and prayers both during her surgery tomorrow and over the coming weeks of chemotherapy. It's going to be a difficult few weeks for her.