Hi all,

It's been a while. I homeschool my five children, so don't have much time on the computer these days. So far Emily has been doing very well. Her shunt continues to do it's job. She is however, having more difficulties with walking.
Teaching her at home has been a real joy, and a challange. She reads at about the eighth grade level. Her writing and math areas need work. Anyone else with kids shunted for hydro find this same issue? I am told that many times this area of the brain is affected by the hydro and the kids do have difficulty.

Nolan...oh boy my little Nolan. He has been my problem child and the cause of all my grey hairs. In school he will ask me how much 1 plus 1 is and when i tell him 2 he insists it is 11. 2 plus 2 is 22 etc...He just turned five. His biological father is an investment banker and this little guy has an interest in numbers. lol He is already doing addition and subraction up to 20.

Tomorrow Nolan goes in to Shriner's Hospital for Children to get his leg xrayed again. He had the tibial ostiomoties in July and one leg did not heal. He will require another fusion.

He is scheduled for November 17th for the endoscopic third ventricalostomy.
Poor little guy has had three shunts this year. He is overdraining and suffering from constant headaches and regular bouts of vomiting. So we are at a place now, where we decided to try it. I really don't know how we will manage these both. I can't imagine his neurosurgeon would want him to have orthopedic surgery so close to the other. I am sure we will have to wait until after he heals from the neurosurgery first. We are really praying that this works for him and he can get relief without a shunt. He has slit ventricals and shunts have been a real problem. His ventricals never increase in size even when his shunt is failing. Now we can't even see the ventricals on the scan.
Through it all, he has maintained his wonderful sense of humor and is as joyful as ever. We are leaving tomorrow two days early for their appointments to have a full day at the Mall of America. They want to go to Snoopy's Play Land.

I have lots of catching up to do here. Lots of old faces and lots of new I see.

Take Care All

Anna