Kellisa's
smile and love of life were gone. She was battling high fevers for weeks.
Nothing was bringing her temperature down to normal. She saw a doctor every few
days and was in and out of the ER and hospitals without any relief. Once again,
Kellisa was baffling the doctors.
From
early on, Lisa was convinced it was the shunt. After a CT scan and MRI, we were
assured that the shunt was fine. Kellisa's shunt had been in place for a long
enough time that a shunt infection was very unlikely. The neurosurgeon didn’t
want to tap the shunt to check the cerebral fluid for an infection because if
it wasn’t infected, the procedure itself carried a 2% risk of infecting the
shunt.
One
afternoon while Kellisa lay lifeless in a hospital bed, Lisa was changing the
channels on the TV and stopped at The Wiggles. Kellisa immediately perked up
and started to watch the four colorful singing and dancing grown men for the
first time. This was her first sign of life in days. Once The Wiggles were
over, Kellisa drifted back to a deep sleep. This pattern continued for days.
Kellisa would use her minimal daily energy to watch The Wiggles.
Frustrated
and desperate, Lisa demanded that the shunt be tapped. The neurosurgeon
eventually agreed and I'm sure he just wanted Lisa to stop asking about the
shunt. He stuck a needle into Kellisa’s head and pulled out some fluid. We
could immediately tell by the look on the doctor’s face that it didn’t look
good. His eyes literally jumped out of their sockets as he watched the cerebral
fluid in the tube. Testing wasn’t necessary; he could tell the shunt was
significantly infected by the amount of debris in the fluid. The neurosurgeon
started preparing for emergency brain surgery.
Not
comfortable with the doctor that ignored her request for weeks, Lisa insisted
on having Kellisa transferred two hours away to our previous neurosurgeon in
Orlando who performed the two most recent shunt revisions on Kellisa.
By the
end of the day, Kellisa was in a new hospital room in Orlando. We waited in the
room to meet with the neurosurgeon and the three of us drifted off too much
needed sleep without a plan. The neurosurgeon wouldn't schedule surgery until
he could check Kellisa out for himself.
At
4:30am, the neurosurgeon woke us up. He apologized and told us that he just got
out of surgery. He reviewed the CT scan and MRI. He told us how good everything
looked and that he wanted to tap the shunt again because he had a hard time
believing the shunt was infected. It didn't take long and despite the fact that
he had already been up for close to 24 hours, he immediately scheduled the
surgery.
Within an
hour, Kellisa was wheeled away for the first of two shunt surgeries. The first
removes the shunt and places an external shunt to drain the fluid while the
infection is fought. Once cleared of the infection which usually takes about a
week, the second surgery removes the external shunt and places a new shunt
inside Kellisa's head. Each step along this process adds to the risk of a new
infection.
While
Kellisa was gone for the first surgery, Lisa and I ate a quick breakfast before
returning to the family waiting area. We nervously watched the clock as the
expected length of the surgery came and went. Before we knew it, our update on
how the surgery went was an hour overdue. Fearing the worst because we knew
this was more serious than her usual shunt surgeries, we were near panic when
we still hadn't heard anything and it was now 90 minutes past when the surgery
should have been completed.
Expecting
the neurosurgeon to come out, we were surprised when a nurse called us to a
private room. She started by telling us that it went well and that Kellisa was
doing great. She then apologized for the delay but explained that there had
been a severe car accident and two children needed immediate brain surgery and
Kellisa's doctor literally went from her surgery to start the others. We were
told that he would talk to us as soon as he could.
The
infection was wiped out without complications, and the second surgery went perfectly.
Kellisa was back to her normal self in no time.
Behind
the scenes, Lisa, the mama bear saved Kellisa's life by fighting for what she
knew in her heart and not blindly accepting answers that went against her
instincts. I've been asked many times how I can tolerate the endless amount of
The Wiggles in my life and I say it's easy because I will always be
grateful for The Wiggles giving Kellisa something to live for when she needed
it most.
No comments:
Post a Comment