(#20) 4th surgery, 2nd shunt

I apologize to those fellow followers
for not updating on yesterday's (12/26) surgery to replace the 2nd shunt. I was pretty worn out Weds night (ended up being an early 9:30 or so surgery w/ maybe a 15min notice that we where next-even Dr.Bragg didn't know when the surgery would fall till literally the moment she was headed up to talk to me in N-ICU anyways and so I had went to bed late the night before.
Anyways I spilled water on my laptop today and didn't bring my netbook so will update once that dries out (hopefully since my brother just fixed it a month ago!) or otherwise as soon as I can.
The short of it is that this surgery went well, another Anesthesiologist I've had before w the fiberoptics/special airway equipment. The surgery itself was another tough one and many addt'l incisions (4 I think might be 5 as although all are covered some dressings are covered by my hair) but Dr.Bragg had to use a guidance system (think of GPS for the brain w using a pre-loaded CT scan from the day before) due to ventricles and how hard getting this shunt in was. The toughness of my skin/muscle makes the placement so much tougher.
She went w a Aesculap (sp?) MiniNav fixed pressure lowest setting (0) valve as the valve is one that should drain even while I lay down (a big problem for me) and as close to the negative draining pressures I did so well w on the External drain but w/out having to not place a valve altogether which can be a bad thing if you get an infection. My other shunt though a different type/brand is also a low pressure valve.
I'll try to update anything else soon but have to add a cute side note. Dr.Bragg had bought this super cute reindeer balloon on Christmas and it was losing air so today while I was down in X-ray she had taken the balloon and had it refilled + was bringing it back as I came back from Radiology. So sweet. :)
Will try updating soon,
Erica