Observation

Nicholas was admitted to the hospital for observation yesterday. They did a CT, x-rays, and an abdominal ultrasound. Everything looked good. The shunt is working and his ventricles look good. His neurosurgeon wants to try to power through this. He doesn't want to do another 4th ventricle shunt because he doesn't think it did him any good when he had it before. They kept turning it up until it was basically turned off so he most likely didn't need it. The shunt he put in last Friday is not programmable and it is the shunt with the least resistance and highest flow, meaning it is draining the most CSF possible. The nsg is thinking it might be over draining a little. He ordered an abdominal binder to wrap around his stomach and put pressure on the tubing to try and slow down the release of fluid. He has eaten and not vomited but he still isn't right. He seems uncomfortable and in pain. So we are just waiting to see if he will get past this without another surgery.

While they were doing the ultrasound they found a gallstone. Gallstones can happen in preemies for a lot of reasons like prolonged use of TPN and Lasix. He was on both of those for a long time. A pediatric surgeon looked at the ultrasound and said that it shouldn't require surgery to remove the stone or his gall bladder. He will have a consult with a GI doctor today and will probably be started on a medication to help break up the stone.