In PICU

Sorry for the delay in updates. Blogger has changed it's posting security or something and I can only post from an actual computer. I can no longer post from my phone messaging system or from my phone's email application. So....
Yesterday, we started our morning with a second opinion from Dr. Stager. He agreed with Dr. Cogen that Jack has optic nerve damage. He said that we should ask our neuroophthalmologist when we see him whether there is any possiblity of recovery of the optic nerve. He sent us over to the Retina Foundation to test Jack's vision using the Teller Acuity Cards. Some doctors disagree on the accuracy of this type of testing. We got good news. The vision in Jack's right eye falls within the normal range for his age group. Wooowooo!!!! AND he is not blind in the left eye. His vision in the left eye is something like 20/1028 (20/20 is normal). The doctor explained that this means that Jack can probably make out large objects and high contrast objects with his left eye. For example, he actually can see his big red car on the porch and he is able to see the doorways in our home. We will have to talk with Dr. Stager again about the patching. Based on our report that Jack appeared to be blind in the left eye he had said that we should discontinue patching. I think the test results will probably change his mind.
Today, Jack had his VP shunt placed. Everything went well. Dr. Price said that everything went just as she expected. BUT, of course, Jack is having difficulty breathing following the anesthesia. As usual, we put him on our home Bipap machine in the recovery room. Because of Jack's respiratory difficulties, they decided that Jack should spend the night being carefully monitored in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Unfortunately, they have told us that since biomed has not approved our Bipap, they are going to put him on a different machine. We have not put him on their machine yet. We've kept his oxygen saturation up by stimulating him frequently which of course means that he is not resting well--we are not letting him get too deeply asleep. We obviously cannot do that all night. We'll have to see how it goes with their machine. Thanks for the prayers. We feel them.