I was going to write a great little "Thank You, Grammy" post with this picture of Charlie. His heart surely belongs to his Grammy after she took such good care of him for days and days. We love her lots and lots for that too! 
This is one of those CUTE Charlie pictures I wanted to post...he is so darn cute in long pants, I can't get over it!! And thanks to Uncle Ted for these overalls!
And sleeping...so sweet.
But then it got to be Tuesday and Kenny developed a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak from his nose. This is one of the complications of the surgery to remove the tumor...because the surgery was done through his nose, they "patch" it back up inside, but the area can develop a leak. It's like a leaking faucet. And Kenny's nose certainly looked like one. It started on Tuesday morning and we went to Northwestern...it stopped and they couldn't verify that it was in fact a CSF leak, so we went home. Tuesday night, it started again so we headed back downtown. Kenny was admitted Tuesday night.
The neurosurgeons decided today to correct the leak by utilizing the shunt that Kenny had placed a few weeks ago. They removed the tubing from Kenny's belly to his neck line today to externalize the tube to allow that to remove the CSF properly, rather than through his nose. This was a fairly simple procedure done in his room today.
Tomorrow, Kenny will be having an operation to try to identify the leak in his nose and "patch" it properly so as to prevent any infection. The tissues would normally just grow in this area, but the ENTs and the neurosurgeons would rather not risk the chance of infection and try to patch the leaking area instead. Again, this is a common surgery that is done with a CSF leak to fix it.
Kenny will be in the hospital through the weekend as they continue to drain the CSF by way of his modified shunt. By Tuesday, they will make a determination if Kenny NEEDS the shunt or not. It has always been the belief that the shunt was only necessary to relieve the hydrocephalus and would not be something that Kenny needed to function, but it would be left in because to remove it requires another brain surgery. Now with the shunt being modified to drain the CSF, they will determine if he needs the shunt and if he does not, they will complete the removal of it. If he does need it, they will put in a new one. Either way, Tuesday he is having another brain surgery...again, a common surgery, but brain surgery nonetheless.
The hope is that he will be released in a day or two after the surgery on Tuesday next week.
He is in GREAT spirits...he says that he hasn't felt this good in WEEKS...that he FEELS like he has so much energy. It's great to see him like this, but so tough because he's stuck in a hospital bed again. I truly believe that his wonderful attitude and the fact that he is feeling so good now will help him recovery very quickly from both of these surgeries in the coming days. We both know this is just a pothole in the road to recovery and we remind ourselves of that and quickly it will be patched and we can be on our way home again to be with our Charlie boy.
This is Kenny and Charlie before leaving for Northwestern on Tuesday night. Kenny has such a hard time because he can't carry Charlie around...so he was just hanging out with him on our bed while I packed a bag. I just think this is a sweet picture.
And a close up of them...we both LOVE our Charlie boy SO much!!!
So, thank you again to everyone who is calling, emailing, writing, asking if they can help us. You are...just by being wonderful family and friends to us...we appreciate it so much...it brightens Kenny's day.
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