Grady had visitors

What a day Grady has had. He had surgery first thing Monday morning to have his internal shunt put back in. That involved three different incisions. Ouch! Little G spent the afternoon off the veny. WooHoo. He did fantastic. As you can see, he also had some visitors. This is Grady's Great Grandmother. Is she fabulous or what? Off the airplane and straight to the hospital to see her great grandson. MiMi came to visit and she was the first person to get to hold our little man, after surgery. As you can see, his surgery went as expected. The surgeon told us that we should be done with surgery and if G has a good night, he can go back to his old unit in the morning.

Well, we are back on the old unit. Do you remember TCU? Man, how great it is to know that we will work on getting this boy off the respirator and that is all we have to work on. There is physical therapy and occupational therapy, but G loves that. Remember the baby massage? Me too! Our little guy can now start working on sitting up and reaching out and getting home! We have not talked about the doctor's plans yet. Hopefully, we will know something very soon. Grady is off the respirator 8 hours a day now. He has not shown any signs of struggle and that tells us what we have always known. Grady is ready to get off that machine.

We want to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your families and loved ones. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Talk soon,

JoJo

Out of Surgery

Once again, Grady has come through surgery like a trooper. He is doing well, has been awake for a little while. As soon as he can have some food, he will be ready to boot scoot his way back to TCU. One more night in the ICU and off we go. Our little man has his internal shunt back. One less attachment to keep him down. Give G a few days and we will be able to pick him up without ANY attachments what so ever. It wil be the first time Mommy or Daddy has held this little one with the freedom to walk around. Well, guess I better get back to little man.
As always, you are the best support any family can have. Thanks for loving my children and praying for them.
Talk soon,
JoJo

Surgery Updates

Grady did just fine for this last surgery. Looks like we have one more. Monday, they will give Little G his internal shunt back. Today, they opened one more cyst. Mommy and I got to view the last CT scan and got a better explanation of these cysts. They are actually normal fluid pockets that we all have. Grady's problems came from the staff infection. His brain 'walled off' these pockets which formed closed pockets. This is what the surgeon keeps referring to as cysts. He goes in and puts a hole in the wall. This allows the pockets to work together and drain, like they are suppose to. So, our little man now has all but one pocket working with the others. As long as he does not have any infection from now until Monday, they will give him a new internal shunt. So, there you have it. Five minutes with the surgeon and we now have a clear picture of everything that Grady has had working against him. As of today, this should all be taken care of.

When I left him, tonight, he was only requiring tylenol and motrin for his pain. There is a two inch incision from the top of his right ear, heading to the top of his head. It looks pretty painful, but the boy is a little trooper. As long as his belly is full, he sleeps, plays and watches his television. One of his doctors, from upstairs, came for a visit. Grady was talking to her the entire time she was there. He had this look on his face that made me think he was telling Beth to let him back upstairs because they were letting the little green men take him away too often. He is a charmer, that grandson of mine. He is already working on the ladies.

Well, I will try to get some pictures on here, of our precious little rock star as soon as I can.

As always, thank you so much for your love, prayers and support. You give us all the strength to continue through these days.

Talk soon,

JoJo

Non-Emergency Surgery

Well, here we are again. Grady is in the operating room, as I type. Dr. H had a long surgery cancel today so he wants to go get the cyst on the right side. We are still going to watch the one at the base of Grady's head. Yesterday was a busy day for Grady, also. He had a CT scan with contrast. That was not such a good day. They allowed the pressure in his head to build so the contrast would get all around. Grady was not best pleased. After the test, they released the pressure and we had our little fella' back.
Today's surgery will take about an hour. Of course, that means we will wait about three hours before we see Little Man again. We were suppose to have an MRI. We did and they wisked him off to surgery once they saw what they needed to see.
Since I don't have any news on the surgery, let me just tell you that Grady has been working hard to get off the respirator. He is up to six hours a day without assistance. As far as Grady is concerned, there is no difference. He sails through his 'trial time' without any change in his day. Now, when they put the respirator back on him, he coughs. I guess the pressure assistance irritates him. We probably would cough too if we had a machine puff air in us. Once he gets the idea that the hose is back on, Grady will grab ahold of it. Sometimes it seems like that hose has become a toy for G to hold on to. So far, he has only jerked the hoses off a few times. Most of the time, it is just a part of the room. But the freedom it gives us not having to move hoses as we move the boy, is so wonderful that we are the ones getting impatient for the hoses to be off for good.
As for today, it looks like Grady will keep the external shunt until Monday unless the doctor feels there is no risk in putting his internal shunt back in. Most likely, we will have to wait until Monday. With all the infections that Grady has had, I don't see Dr. H taking that risk. But who knows what this wonderful doctor will decide to do! So far, he has made all the difference in our little guy. Well, Grady has done some of that himself.
I will put a note out here when we get this little trouper back to his room.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Talk soon,
JoJo

8 Months old

Today has been a big day for our little man. Grady was able to get out of bed and Mommy finally got to hold him. It has been over three weeks since Grady has been held. It is way past time. As you can see, Grady is doing well. He continues to recoup from Monday's surgery. He is taking all of his meals through the bottle again. This is the first bottle, in three weeks, that Grady has taken sitting up. Maybe we needed to hold little G more than he needed to be held......nnnnaaaaahhhhh! As you all know, there is nothing better than holding such a precious little bundle in your arms.

Can you believe that tomorrow, our little man will be 8 months old? Time has really disappeared. You might think that the hours would drag on, sitting in this hospital all the time. It is amazing how fast the days have gone by.

The doctors are running cultures on Grady every day. It takes about 3-7 days for this infection to appear. So far, we have one positive results and one negative. We will stay in the ICU until they internalize the shunt. The good part is that Grady is not battling the fever. He is on three different antibiotics for this and they seem to be fighting the infection off. The doctor did explain to us that as long as Grady has these foriegn objects in his body, he is at risk for infections. We are just going to be extra careful from now on. Right down to using the gloves to change his diapers. Another blessing we have is that our little guy does not appear to be loosing weight like he did the first time. As long as he can keep his weight and strength up, he should be able to kick this infection quickly.

Well, thanks again for all of your support and prayers.

Talk soon,

JoJo

Continuing to improve

Well, Grady had a rough night the day of surgery. He spiked a very high fever but he was already taking the antibiotic for the infection so the fever broke around 12:30. Grady was able to get some much needed rest. Day two brought sedation and pain meds. Grady slept about 24 hours. Day three brought a bright eyes little boy that wanted his bottle back. Today, Grady woke up happy. He has been looking around his room, checking out all of the new colors and shapes. This room has walls to keep the sounds of others out. This is the first time , since the surgery, he has really cared where he was. Grady continues to control his own temperature. He will spike a small fever, but it will break before he gets any tylenol or motrin. That is a very good sign. We were told, in the beginning of this, that he would be very sick for about a week. Looks like, once again, Grady will have it his way. He only wanted to be sick for a couple of days. Now we will just hang out here until they change all the hardware. The next surgery will give little G new hardware and an internal drain. I am hoping that we will be able to get him out of bed after that. A couple more weeks of fighting this infection and he should get his internal shunt back.

Well, that is all for now. I will get a picture of this little snuggle boy on here when I get back to the trouse. Thank you all so very much for all your prayers. Looks like we may be here for some time. Hug my kids when you see them.

Talk soon,
JoJo

Cultures never lie

Mommy was nibbling on Grady!

Grady is recouping from surgery. He began running a fever the morning he was scheduled for his shunt to be internalized. Guess what they found?!?!? Infection! So the surgery plans were changed to a new, clean external shunt. Grady is still in the PICU and he is still confined to his bed. This will lead to another surgery in about two weeks that will give him new hardware and an internal drain. After another two weeks, or when Grady is completely infection free, the surgeon will put the internal shunt back in. We may be in the PICU for as much as a month. Anyone up for a hospital turkey dinner? Looks like Grady and I will be dining in for Thanksgiving.

For now, Grady is receiving drugs to keep him relaxed. The doctor replaced his stitches a little bit ago. Looks like Grady has to have a certain material for his stitches or it will not hold. This boy has the sweetest and softest skin you could want, but even that can be an issue when you need someone to sew you up.

At least the boy is well fed and well loved. As we sit here, nurses, doctors and other very helpful staff members come by to see how our little G is doing. He is pretty well known on this floor, too. He must have signed up for the membership. Someone take his debit card away.

As Grady continues to improve, I will keep you all updated. I can't give you a picture right now, but check back later. I will add some when I am not at the hospital.

As always, you keep us going. Thank you for your prayers, love and support.

Talk soon,
JoJo