Emylie came home from the hospital a week after birth. She was monitored closely in the hospital to see if she would need a shunt. Her head circumference was measured multiple times a day. This continued when she came home. I was so worried. I measured probably every time I changed her diaper. I would call the Nurse Practitioner at S.B. clinic and tell her the measurements to which she would tell me she thought she was still ok. Somehow that calmed my worries, for at least a few minutes anyway. When we took Emylie to get her stitches out of her back we wanted the Nurse Practitioner to look at her head while we were there. It only took one look and she said, “I think it is time.” She sent us back down the hall to schedule the surgery with the Neurosurgeon and the next morning her shunt was placed. The shunt drains the excess fluid out of the ventricles in the brain down into the abdominal cavity.
This is Emylie the morning of her shunt surgery. Looking at this picture breaks my heart. She woke that morning with “sunset” eyes. This is what they call the eyes when they look this way from the pressure in the head pushing down on the eyes.
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