I was awoken early this morning around 1:30am by the neurosurgery fellow saying that he had to take some samples and measure pressures from Chloe's internal shunt. This request came from the neurosurgeon based off yesterday's CT scan. The neurosurgeon felt that the size of her brain ventricles and her hydrocephalus had not come down in size. In fact, he felt that they might be a little larger. They are scheduling a shunt revision sometime late this afternoon in the operating room. Once again we are in the familiar position of bracing ourselves for yet another surgery on our baby girl.
Looking ahead, Michelle and I managed to tour two rehab facilities today and get back in time to write this blog and be with Chloe while she awaits surgery. We were very impressed with one of the rehab facilities, Blythedale in Westchester. The one big challenge is the distance but we'll address that mountain when we are ready.
On our drive back from Westchester, Michelle and I had time to talk about all that has happened in the past month. We never could have imagined a life like this for our family. Prior to Chloe's illness we would always tell each other that we are so blessed to have to beautiful and healthy children. And in a blink of an eye a month has passed us by with our darling baby girl in the hospital fighting and recovering from a terrible illness. We still ask ourselves, 'Is this a test?' A test on our faith? A test on our family strength? Or is this just a horrible, horrible nightmare from which we will soon awake? In either case, it has definitely taken its toll on our family. We are tired, beaten and exhausted. Our tempers are shorter and we react irrationally at times. All normal human reactions in the grand scheme of things. But at the end of the day we're one family - fighting for the best for both our girls. "Our house is strong, our family is strong" is what we now tell Olivia every night as one of her fears has been that 'the house is falling.' At only 3 years of age, Olivia is amazingly intuitive and aware of this nightmare that has rocked us.
And so we press on...we press on because we know that Chloe, with all that she has been through has not given up her fight. We often hear from friends and family that children are remarkably resilient. Chloe is the poster child for resilience.
Thanking you for your continued prayers,
Rethier, Michelle, Olivia & Chloe
We love you all!!! Annie, Ashley, & Matty
ReplyDeleteI love all four of you. Michelle--there is a suprise coming for you in the mail.
ReplyDeletexoxoxo
Jaime