13 month old shunt, hemorrage

Hi Jandn, I don't have the same experience but I do have a now 2 year old medically fragile foster son that we're in the process of adopting. He has severe brain damage (is missing almost 1/2 his brain) and a horrible seizure disorder. He's been with us for a 13 months now. Last June I was told that he would die. At the time, and until this past January, he thrived at what I would say was a step above comatose. Well, in January, God decided to perform a miracle for our little boy. He has been seizure free for 2-1/2 months now, he is bright eyed (he use to sleep 20-22 hours a day), he smiles and laughs, he can now roll over, he tracks people, he laughs at things on TV and our cuckoo clock. My point is, you just never know what can/will happen with children. I know that I have seen shows on kids with hydrocephaly that have no problems at all. Their shunts may occasionally get clogged but, other than that, they do everything a typical child their age does. We also have a 2-1/2 y/o that had Erbs Palsy at birth. He didn't do anything until he was 7 months old (that's when he rolled over for the first time). He received early intervention services (which this little girl will need too) and is now above his age level on everything except, maybe, speech. The biggest thing these kids need is someone to love them and accept them unconditionally! Someone that will not give up on them, even when everyone else has already given up on them. We are not overly-religious people but I do know that, without a doubt, there was Divine Intervention on Charlie's behalf. There's just no other explanation for his miraculous turn around. Instead of functioning at a 3 week old level (which was the age he got sick) he now probably functions at a 4-6 month level. He's still way behind but I don't care, he's awesome!!! Best of luck with the staffing. I will keep you and this little girl in my prayers. You can do this, I know you can. You will learn everything you need to learn to take care of her and help her get better. Michelle

Hi. I don't have first hand experience with a brain-bleed shunt, but there is a child in our extended family who has a shunt due to hydrocephaly. It was put in at 6 months, as I recall, and she is now 10 years old. She is completely normal, developmentally, and leads an active life. However, she is also chronically ill. Despite the fact that her shunt works perfectly, and in fact is technically unnecessary at this point since the original lesion has healed up long ago, she has severe migraines quite regularly. So, every few days she has a day of extreme pain, nausea, vomiting, and weakness. She misses school, etc. on those days, and must be cared for at home. Oddly, the headaches are either "on" or "off"--when she has one, it is a doozy, but when she doesn't have one, she is perfectly fine. They have tried everything recommended by three children's hospitals and specialists out the wazoo, and nothing has helped prevent the headaches. The docs don't know the cause. This is painful to watch, and has played havoc with the family schedule, and has probably left her younger brother feeling like he gets way less attention, but she is alive and healthy. When she isn't having a headache, she is perfectly fine. On the other hand, I have a friend whose husband is a neurosurgeon. He mentioned, upon hearing about this child in our family, that shunts are the reason he is not a pediatric surgeon--he felt that constantly dealing with shunt problems that he could not solve would be depressing, so he opted for removing brain tumors, etc from adults. I took this to mean that ongoing problems with shunts are not uncommon, and aren't always fixable. Don't know if this helps, but saw the word "shunt" and thought I'd chime in. Best of luck to you in learning more about her condition and making your decision. Peace,