Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Hmm...
Out for a walk.
Camilla's Aunt Teresa visited from Colorado last weekend.
So sleepy... I never know what I'll find on my camera.
From the day after her surgery. She looks a little apprehensive, despite the duck cuff.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Yeah, I didn't say which 11...

We had a difficult stay in the hospital last weekend because Camilla's IV failed again and no one could get a new one started, causing her to miss several doses of antibiotics. As they tried again and to start a new IV, she let out tortured screams and we held her down. It's an interesting analogy for life; sometimes terrible things are happening and we can't possibly understand why.

On Monday they decided to release her on oral antibiotics. We don't know if the infection is clear or not; the only way to find out would be to tap her shunt, and doing that would potentially introduce an infection. For now we just have to keep a close eye on her, and hope that she continues doing ok. If there's still no sign of an infection in a few months, then she's probably clear.

More cute pictures soon...

Monday, September 12, 2005

Home again. Details at 11.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Camilla seems to be recovering nicely. There is one troubling issue though; her cerebral-spinal fluid samples contain staph bacteria. Typically, infections are treated by removing the shunt and going back to an external drain until the infection is completely cleared. However, she doesn't have any symptoms of the infection, her shunt is new, and there is very little bacteria in the samples, so they are putting her on antibiotics instead. Sadly, the antibiotic she is receiving needs to be delivered intraveniously. This is somewhat complicated for Camilla because she has had so many IVs in her life. She is like a tiny junkie; her veins are all damaged and it is very difficult to find a good one for a new IV. After many tries, they finally got one in today, and if all goes well she can come home from the hospital in a few days. We are staying in the hospital with her. April took this picture with her cell phone.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Camilla is back from surgery. They ended up replacing the whole shunt system.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Camilla's shunt stopped working a few weeks ago. She's having surgery tomorrow to fix it.

Friday, September 02, 2005

The day before April went into labor, we visited the Grand Canyon (for some reason, she didn't want to pose right at the edge). As you can see, April was never very pregnant. I was surprised when the doctor said, "If the baby is going to survive, we need to get April to Albuquerque." It didn't occur to me that survival was an option; I thought that we were losing the baby.