TCH Follow-ups, back to the OR

We arrived in Houston yesterday afternoon for a couple of days filled with with routine appointments and post-op follow-ups. Ironically, these are appointments we had scheduled over a month ago. Today, we met with ophthalmology, who told us that Aberdeen would need to be fitted for glasses at her next appointment, and this afternoon we'll follow up with cardiology, per usual. Tomorrow, we were supposed to be going to our routine follow-up with the craniofacial team and meeting with Abby's new neurosurgeon (the one she saw for the past 1.5 years retired last month). As it happens, we are now well acquainted with Abby's new neurosurgeon and no longer need to have the anticipated conversation about the timing of a cranial vault expansion. Ah, life. Instead, Aberdeen will be meeting the craniofacial team in the OR again tomorrow to remedy some major issues we've had with her incision over the last week and a half.

While areas of Aberdeen's main incision are healing well (and her shunt incision looks awesome), there are a couple of spots on the top of her head that have been a source of great concern. Unfortunately, her skin has not been able to accommodate the amount of tension required to secure her scalp after her skull was expanded, and it has been tearing away from the sutures. We've sent dozens of pictures to her team over the last week, and they were hopeful that it would start to heal on its own after a few days. While some of the spots have done just that, one of them has continued to open, leaving a large, gaping wound on the top of her head. We've done our best to keep it clean and deal with wound care and dressing changes as instructed, but I haven't felt confident in our ability to deal with the severity of the wound for a few days now. After the last batch of pictures we sent was received by the team, they decided it was time for surgical intervention so as to minimize the risk of infection - which is of especially high concern now that she has a shunt. Tomorrow they will clean out the wound and hopefully close and secure it as best they can. While I hate that she has to go through even more trauma this month, and I'm pretty sure cardiology is going to throw a fit when we tell them this afternoon, I don't know what else we can do at this point. 

So, back to the OR we go. They expect that this will merely be an outpatient procedure, but right now we're planning on staying in Houston an extra night, just to be safe. Thankfully, Abby has been in great spitrits and such a trooper through everything. Prayers this is the last step we have to take toward getting Aberdeen's head healed up and back to our usual routine.