To wait, or not, to do the shunt surgery.

We received a call from Dr. Lazareff (the neurosurgeon (whom we really like, btw)) saying he'd reviewed the ultrasounds and Ian's ventricles have indeed grown in diameter since the last scan before we left the NICU. He's suggesting we go ahead with the shunt surgery.

Just last week I secured a meeting with a Doctor of Osteopathy, Dr. Dolgin, after a couple calls earlier to his office. We had been referred to Dr. Viola Fryman in San Diego some time ago and set an appointment with her in August because she wasn't available sooner. When I asked her opinion as to who we might see more local to us, she said no doubt it would be Dr. D which is why I called him.

So what does an Osteopath do? I still don't completely understand it but we brought Ian in for his first appointment. He asked me a bunch of questions. Then he did a physical exam of Ian and proceeded to put this massager device that kind of looked like a buffer on different parts of his body. Then he put his hands on his head for a while. After he was done, he said Ian responded well to the treatment. Then he requested that we wait a month for the surgery and come back to him for at least 5 sessions. He feels he might be able to help him get the fluid to flow better so we don't have to do the surgery. He's not promising anything but said that it has happened before.

So what do we do? Do we try this and put it off or go ahead? There needs to be more questions answered by both doctors. Mike put a list together and we'll get a hold of them tomorrow. So stressful all of this. We just hate the idea of our poor little guy going through another surgery and having this thing in his body for the rest of his life. But the alternative, if it doesn't work, is bad too. Goodness knows he doesn't need any additional stress on his brain. He's got enough to deal with up there!