Welcome to Lauren's web page! A sincere thank you to all who are concerned about Lauren and who are praying for her. Please continue to pray!!

Journal

Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:33 PM CDT

Thursday morning Lauren was found to be unresponsive and was taken via ambulance to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. There it was determined that the shunt in her brain that drains spinal fluid off had malfunctioned. Over the course of the evening and night, she required 4 taps to manually pull spinal fluid off of her brain. The increased pressure that the spinal fluid was creating around her brain seemed to cause her severe headaches, which the neurosurgeon said was typical. On Friday morning the old shunt was removed and replaced with a new and functioning shunt. She tolerated the surgery well, though she continues to have pain. We are home now, which makes us all feel better.

It is expected that when children receive shunts at a very young age (Lauren received hers at 4 weeks old), they will need revising at some point, due to the growth of the child. Reese and I have feared this, as some children can die if the shunt is not replaced quickly enough. We have a friend who lost her daughter because her shunt failed in the middle of the night and thus was discovered too late, causing the pressure around her brain to be fatal. Lauren was fine the night before and though we sleep with a baby monitor to listen for her, we heard nothing. Thank God she began throwing up around 8:00 am (which is an "early" late sign of increased pressure around her brain), which we heard. Just a few minutes earlier she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

God continues to be faithful beyond belief, and we are again humbled by his grace and mercy. He continues to keep His hand on our precious Lauren, allowing her to remain here with us to love and enjoy. We celebrated her 16th birthday last week, which is one year longer than the same neurosurgeon who replaced the shunt this week predicted she would survive when he placed the first one in 1991. God is good and He orchestrates our lives, not any doctor.

Please pray for Lauren as she recovers from this surgery. We sincerely appreciate those of you who still check in on her.

Tammy

Read Journal History

Links:

E-mail Author: tammylegge@comcast.net

---

 

Your gift will help millions of people stay connected with friends and loved ones during challenging times.

---

 

This page has been viewed 28376 times.

Note: The foregoing information was authored by the patient, parent or guardian, or other parties who are solely responsible for the content. Such announcements or their content are not necessarily endorsed by CaringBridge, Inc. or any sponsoring agent.  This information does not confirm that anyone is or was actually a patient at any facility.