Frequently Asked Questions

Since not much has been going on around here lately (WOOHOO!) I thought I'd take a minute to give answers to some of the questions we are quite frequently asked. I think I'll play it Jeopardy style....you get to guess the questions, and I will give you the answers!

Yes, barring a miracle, Mac will always have his shunts. The initial bleeding into the ventricles of his brain, as well as the meningitis (an infection of the brain), caused tons of scarring. This scarring occludes the ducts that drain the cerebral spinal fluid.

Yes, Mac will have more surgeries. No shunt will last forever. In fact, each individual shunt has a 50% failure rate in the first two years. Mac has two shunts. You do the math! In addition to shunt failures, Mac has had surgeries because the anatomy within his brain changes, which means the shunts need to change too. He has a whole network of cysts that fill and drain and form continuously, and those cause trouble for him and his shunts. When the cysts change, the pressure inside the shunted areas change, and since the shunts only work at certain pressure levels, that means the shunts either quit working, or over drain. This causes more trouble for Mac. Bummer, right?!

We don't know what Mac's future looks like. I mean, we know he'll always be adorable, but as far as what he can do and can't do, we don't know a whole lot. The initial bleeds caused brain damage, and each shunt issue that he's had has the potential to have damaged his brain as well. He will have an MRI at some point to get a clearer picture of any damage that was done. That said, baby brains are amazing. Because a lot of the damage was done during a time when the brain is just beginning to make lots of connections anyway, it can compensate really well. It's really one of the very few things about being a preemie--his brain was supposed to still be growing and developing in utero at the time it was damaged by the bleed and infection, so hopefully it just did its thing and worked around the damaged areas and fixed itself right up :)

While his shunts aren't as noticeable now as they were when he was tiny, people do notice them from time to time. I LOVE it when people ask me about them, and Mac in general! We are overwhelmingly proud of our son, and just like any proud parent, we like to brag about everything about him. While we don't like that he is uncomfortable or will suffer in anyway, we wouldn't change anything about Mac. It's a funny thing about babies--you want the one that you have, quirks and all. Its not our job to change who Mac is, and we wouldn't want to. Our job is simply to love him and do everything in our power to make his life as fulfilling as it can be...the same as it is with our other children.

Thank you all so much for checking in on Mac! Hopefully I'll have a more informational post next week....we're off to see the neurosurgeon and pediatrician! What fun!