Brain Check!

Davis had his annual CAT Scan and Neurosurgery visit this afternoon. The doctor has to monitor his hydrocephalus once a year to make sure it's not getting worse. Everything looked good. No changes from last year.

For those of you that aren't familiar with this and would like to be, below is my Brainology 101...take notes...

Everyone has spinal fluid that circulates throughout their ventricles and drains into their spine. Well...Davis had an Intraventricular Hemorrhage, which is a bleed on his brain, right after he was born. Once it healed, like all bleeds, it formed scar tissue. That scar tissue wouldn't allow proper drainage of his spinal fluid (kind of like a clogged drain). The built-up fluid put pressure on his ventricles, caused his head to swell, and resulted in brain damage. Some people require permanent devices to drain the fluid, which is called a Shunt. It's basically a long tube that goes from the head to the stomach and releases fluid that way. Davis' Neurosurgeon didn't believe that he needed lifelong support for his hydrocephalus, so a temporary Shunt (VAD) was put in. A nurse would manually removed the fluid with a needle. Really strange to watch!

So, that tiny little bleed Davis suffered from after birth is what ultimately caused his life long battle with Cerebral Palsy.

This is pretty crazy...You can see how swollen his head is here. The day before his VAD surgery. He was one month old and being a shy boy!

And here he is just hours after the surgery. His head immediately got so much smaller!