Another Surgery

Monday and Tuesday were great days and very eventful, in a good way. Monday the fire alarms went off and while we were outside taking a walk the fire trucks came. Jackson was able to go right up to them and touch them and the firemen even opened the doors so he could peek inside. After that we continued our walk to see the construction that is going on. Jackson loves to watch the tractors and big trucks on the site. This is beginning to be a daily walk and beats looking at the walls of the hospital room.

When we got back to the floor there where some SoCon football players visiting the patients and Jackson got his picture taken with them. It was published in the Greenville News on Tuesday. You can see the picture by going to http://www.greenvilleonline.com/ and then in the search box type in SoCon Football. It will pull up a few recent articles, click on "SoCon coaches gather for football rouser". This will pull up the article and the picture. You can zoom in on the picture by clicking on it. They butchered my name and our last name (Bennett), but it was a cute picture of Jackson. Another photographer took a picture of the Appalachian State player sitting in bed with Jackson for a NC news paper. He said he'd get a copy of that picture back to the hospital for us. The rest of day consisted of playing in the playroom and playing fuse ball. He loves to play fuse ball!

Tuesday was much of the same but without the fire trucks and the football players. We went for our walk to see the tractors and he was able to see a crane and a bulldozer, this was exciting stuff! We sat for quite awhile watching them and then went back to the room for an early nap.

While he was sleeping the infectious disease Dr. came in to take a daily sample of spinal fluid, they will take samples everyday and do tests on them. We need to have a negative culture for 7-10 days before they will put in a new shunt system and we can go home. She called a few hours later to say that the sample she took was already showing 4+ positives. Not what we want! So back to surgery he goes. This time they will remove the existing infected system and externalize it. He will have the tube draining from the top of his head, where the ICP monitors were (this is what they did a few years ago when he had an infection). We thought this might happen but were hoping it wouldn't. I guess it's better that it happened now instead of this weekend or next week. While they have him under they are going to put in a PIC line, this lasts longer than IV's and is more convenient. I took him down to the O.R. about 15 mins ago and just got a call that they are about finished. They are putting in the PIC line and will call me again when it's complete and I'll meet him in recovery. I'll try to post again tomorrow. Until then please continue to keep him in your prayers. We know that God is in control and Jackson is one lucky little boy to have so many people who care for him.