A update to my previous post!

I wrote a blog about hydrocephalus and then today while perusing the news I found a story about a texas baby named baby Klaus. He is 11 months old and has severe hydrocephalus. For some reason no neurosurgeons would help this family and now his head has swollen 130% larger than it should!
Finally a physician has stepped in to help this poor baby and so far since installing a shunt, his head has shrunk 12 inches.
It is tragic, they fear he may be blind, deaf and disabled, but as the dr poignantly says in the video at the bottom of the news story, you never give up on a babies brain!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_doctors_in_texas_rally_to_save_baby_klaus_born_with_massive_head_due_to_excess_f.html

Its megamind baby!

That is what my 4 year old exclaimed when she saw this picture from my A&P textbook! I don't know who megamind is, she tells me its a movie.
This adorable little one however has hydrocephalus, which is an abnormal accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain. It is a condition that one can be born with or acquired later on at some point in life. It can be life threatening, and damaging to the brain. In newborns the skull is not fused so there is some room for the fluid building up. At this point a shunt can be inserted to drain excess fluid out of the skull. In adults it can be very dangerous because the skull is fused and can lead to brain damage much faster from the excess pressure buildup.
I had a friend in high school who had a shunt placed as an infant because he was born with hydrocephalus. He was lucky and had no deficits as a result. He was very smart and ran cross country. Once his shunt became infected and had to be hospitalized, he did recover though. I know he had said he had to have surgery to revise his shunt when he hit puberty and grew several inches. I am guessing the shunt didn't grow with him!

 

Home stretch!

Just a handful of weeks left in class, I am ready for a break! This class has been such a marathon and its not over, one more semester to go! I try not to think to much about that fact. I truly think of this much like a marathon, if I think about how far I have left to go, I wont make it to that final mile!
Its so much work to study for an A, exhausting actually, but that is the goal I gave set for myself and have been accomplishing.

We have a test on the central nervous system in a few days so I am in full study mode, as soon as I finish this psych paper, and algebra test! Such a balancing act, and I suck at it!

We have gotten to see Katie now twice and it is so amazing. I am so very grateful for this opportunity, and so glad I chose to come to this college. Not many at my level of education get the chance to see something so cool.

She is 91 years old and seems so far to be in fantastic shape! I wonder how she died and marvel at the muscles and organs that carried her through 9 years short of a century!
I caught myself on the first night, resting my fingers on top of her hand while Molly was showing us something. Much like I would if I was comforting her or something. I know she doesn't need comforting anymore but it seemed only right, for what she is giving us! I looked at her hand, age spots and so grandmotherly. I get way over sentimental sometimes but I thought this hand must have held little hands across the street and cooked food for loved ones. So much, someone does in 91 years.
I imagine she was wonderful and did amazing things, even if it isn't true, because I don't want to think anything less.
   

My first Stitches!

I can think its cool,  now that it doesn't hurt so bad.....

2 stitches

I had a very normal flesh colored round mole there, for as long as I could remember. This summer it started getting red and itchy and sometimes painful. Then it suddenly deflated! Thats the only way I can describe it, it looked empty. At my checkup I told the doc about it, and he decided since it had been changing and irritated, that we should remove it.

I had a punch biopsy, which basically consisted of them taking a little cookie cutter to my leg. She then stitched up the spot that they cookie cuttered the mole out of, and wahlaa!
It hurt more than I expected, and the stitches bled more than I expected but I did stand in line for 45 minutes to vote after that appt. (when I was supposed to be laying on the couch taking it easy for a little bit) There are some things that must not be ignored however!

They called with the results, No suspicious cells! However she did say it was actively growing deeper in a non cancerous way.....No wonder it was irritating! I wonder if the pathologist could see cells in differing stages of mitosis or something, to make that call!