The Longest Day...to coming back home

Cameron is back where he belongs - Home! After a two night stay at the hospital we are so happy to have him back. Friday was the worst day ever, with no food for Cameron all day and no clear answer on when we would get him into surgery - just lots of waiting. All we knew was there was a child that needed surgery before Cameron, so you really couldn't get too upset as it meant that someone else's child needed the Dr's more than we did.
We watched them take Cameron into surgery at 9:30pm on Friday and met back up with him in recovery at midnight, it was a relief to see our sweet little boy, but he was not looking good. Pale as a ghost and coming off of the anesthesia, tears overtook us. Seeing the shunt in place was something I could never have prepared myself for. The device is embedded under his scalp and the tubing runs all the way down to his belly. With time we have gotten more used to it, and he will grow into it, and eventually his hair will cover it up. But the initial shock was very hard; our hearts were breaking for Cameron and hoping he was not in too much pain. After a CT scan we got him up to his room at about 2am, Dad headed home and Mom slept at Cameron's bedside. Cameron was in the constant care Neurosurgery ward – along with 6 other post-op children.
We later learned the reason our surgery was pushed back - a little boy, Zach, who also has Hydrocephalus needed a shunt revision following a seizure earlier that day. I had to wonder was this our future. We met him and his mother who could not have been a sweeter family. We met another child at Children’s, Max, who was there for the 101.9 Mix 36 Hour Radiothon to support Children’s. He is 12 and has only had one revision is whole life. So you just don’t know what will happen. We can only hope for the best. Max was so sweet and came up to meet Cameron, his advice was to not let him play football. He really was just so cute.
I have to say being at Children’s during the radiothon just broke our hearts; we would occasionally go down to the lobby for a break and hear the stories of many children, some who did not make it and others who still struggle. In fact, if you tuned in really early on Saturday morning you might have caught mom on the radio telling Cameron’s story.
All in all this was by far the most difficult weekend for us, I believe in many ways we were blissfully ignorant to Cameron’s health struggles and now that you can see something is wrong with him he brings it to life I guess. There are times I have wondered if we will make it through all of this, but Cameron just started to smile at us late last week and that alone will keep us going for years to come.
I just want to say to everyone that you can’t take life for granted, treasure every moment you have with your family and friends and most of all if you have children hold them tight, tell them you love them daily, you are blessed to have healthy children – there were too many sad stories this weekend and no one should have to deal with such struggles, much less children.

Our next step is to see Dr. Alden next week for a follow up. We are aware of all the malfunction and infection signs to watch out for and are trying to keep it all in check. Thanks to all of you who sent us emails, text messages and voicemails it is so important during this time of crisis to hear from the people who love us.

Xoxo mom and dad