Don't be jealous. Too much fluid on your brain and you can have a shunt, too!

Well, Folks! Here's the latest, although it is kind of old news by now. I just haven't gotten the chance to post until now, when I should really be in bed. If you haven't heard, Ryan will be having surgery first thing in the morning. They will be placing a VP Shunt on his brain to drain the excess cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) that is building up there. His brain isn't absorbing the CSF like normal which has caused his ventricals to dilate and is what has been causing his symptoms. It is a permanent and programmable shunt, with a tube that goes from his brain down behind his ear, down his neck and chest and drains into his stomach, where it just heads into his guts (there was a cool technical term for those but I have forgotten it...'guts' sounds so 3rd grade!) and is taken care of. The surgery is pretty fast, fairly non-invasive, and he should feel better really quickly afterwards--bye-bye nausea and headaches! We might even get to head home in a day or two (best-case scenario)!
OK, so that will be all for tonight but I'm sure you'll see something on here tomorrow, just not sure of when. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers...we sure don't want to be here, but I can't wait for Ryan to start feeling better, so whatever it takes for that is welcome.
Until tomorrow then!