Can You Call It "Shunt Malfunction" If There's No Shunt?

We considered it a small victory when we made it through the weekend.  But we knew that it would be a short-lived victory   Nathan was still vomiting and his eyes had begun sunsetting again.  Both sure signs that Nathan was having what we would normally have called a "shunt malfunction."  But since he didn't have a shunt, it was obvious that there was a problem with the ETV.

So Monday we were headed back up to Primary Children's.

Nathan was readmitted again, partially to get him re-hydrated and partially to figure out why the ETV wasn't working.  It had just barely been over 2 weeks since the ETV surgery, so it was difficult for the surgeon to hypothesize exactly what the problem may have been.  His initial guess was that it was most likely that the hole he had poked in the floor of the Third Ventricle had closed over.  But he wouldn't be able to tell without an MRI.

If the hole was closed, his recommendation was to go in and reopen it.  If it was still open, he would try to coax it into draining better.

The MRI revealed that the hole was still open.  So in order to coax the ETV into draining, Dr. Riva-Cambrin was going to perform a Lumbar Puncture on Nathan.