Saturday, April 12, 2008

Fluid issues


We've not updated for quite some time.  We have several reasons/excuses but basically the main one is that we had a pretty stress filled go there for a while.

Around the middle of March Kelli took Sam in for a follow up on his head.  Sam had several pockets of fluid in various places around his forehead and on top of his head.  Dr. Singhal was concerned that the fluid may be cerebral spinal fluid (csf) and the risk of draining it was too high at that time.  Evidently, csf is quite intelligent and if any part of it gets infected it may send the infection to the brain.  Dr. Singhal wrapped Sam's head with a pressure wrap that was supposed to help reduce the swelling and wanted to see him in a week.
Kelli took him a week later and Dr. Singhal now had reason to believe that it was not csf and decided to drain it.  Sam was not in favor of this decision or the draining process.  They were able to drain 25 cc's  of fluid from his head.  It was not csf, which was/is good news.  The next day, however, the fluid pockets returned.  Kelli rewrapped Sam's head, called the doctor's office and another visit was scheduled.  This time 33 cc's were drained.  Sam didn't like having fluid drained this time either and the fact that he was sick (so was Kelli) didn't make it any easier. The next week they only drained 8 cc's and decided that he didn't need to be seen for two weeks.  He is scheduled to be seen on Wednesday, April 16th.  He still has swelling, but not as much as before the draining process began.  
Kelli and Sam have been battling various virus issues for the past month.  Neither is at 100% right now; but both are doing much better.