Post Shunt Surgery

When we made it back to Nathan's room, he was already there.  And to our surprise, he was ORANGE!

The most challenging complication of shunt surgery is infection.  So to reduce the likelihood of infection, the patient's skin is cleaned with a topical disinfectant.  In our case, Nathan's head, trunk, and abdomen were lathered in Betadine, making him look like an orange smurf!  I wish we had a picture of it, but our camera broke just before Christmas.

Additionally, he had three bandages on his body.  One on the top of his head, one behind his left ear, and one next to his belly button.

Other than that, there was no noticeable change yet.  His eyes were still a little freaky and his head was still a little big.  I don't know that we were expecting an immediate change, but we were certainly hoping for it.

Mostly, we were relieved that the surgery was finally over.  We were very hopeful that this would be his last one and that we could just keep moving forward and come home soon.