A New Milestone
We are very quietly approaching the four-year shuntiversary for Willow. This is the longest she has ever gone without needing a brain surgery for her shunt; whether that was a revision or a whole new replacement. As parents, we always dreamed of the time when we wouldn't have to worry so much about Willow, her shunt, headaches, symptoms, and so on. But honestly, that was very naive of us. We absolutely do still worry about those things, and in this day of the Covid pandemic, of course, we are a little more on top of research, studies, medical findings, and such. We are finding though that the worry is far less than within her first two years of life, or even the first seven. You see, she is ten years old and has gone through seventeen, yes 17, brain surgeries. So, we will always worry, but now, our worry is less and actually surrounded by more knowledge. She has learned what her headaches feel like and so while she has them frequently, they are less in pain than she used to descri