Tuesday 25 August 2009

Today we went to see Dr Ray, the neurosurgeon, to get the results of the scan.

On the way in the receptionist, no idea if it was the one who didn't order the MRI for a whole week or not, said "oh that's a familiar name." I knew straight away it was because she had booked Katriona's surgery. And I was correct.

Dr Ray showed us Katriona's scans and they weren't as bad as I recalled. Her brain still has the crinkly bits that it is meant to have which is a good thing. The scan showed no signs of any damage. There is a LOT of fluid though, even the doctor said that. Curiously there is nothing to indicate why Katriona has hydrocephalus; no blockage, no tumour. In the absence of a blockage, there is nothing to 'fix', so the only action that can be taken is to fit a shunt. Dr Ray hastened to say that he didn't like to do shunt surgery unless necessary because it condemns the patient to a life of dependency on the shunt, but there is nothing else that can be done.

Katriona's surgery will be on Monday and he operates in age order so she will be first and he is fitting four shunts that day.

As we left he told us that the previous night he can been called in to the hospital as a baby the same age as Katriona had presented at the ED with obvious hydrocephalus. An MRI was done (the fact that it was done there and then struck me) and it was revealed that this baby had a tumour. Unfortunately it is inoperable and that baby can't be fixed. It reinforced my gratitude that we are in the situation we are in where we can access excellent medical care, that it is free and that our child has had the problem detected early and can be fixed and will live. That other family. How sad they must be.