Lou was born on Jan 10, 2006. He gave momma the worst labor that she went thru. He was delivered twice. And the cord was wrapped around his neck. so not only did he have fluid on his brain but he was blue, daddy said he looked like a blue berry and his head felt like a water balloon. 3 days later he went under surgery for his 1st shunt Mclanahan didnt know what to think about him. He said we need to watch him carefully bc he honestly didnt know if my little brother was gonna make it or not. at 2 months he started goin to his eye doctor. said he had a little stignatism and he wanted to put glasses on him but since he was little he said it was to early. at 3months he started seein his EIP : Stacy . She helped him get up to some potencial but he still wasnt rolling over. he scooted with ONE arm, he doesnt use his right arm. at 13 months he started goin to therapy over at touch stone therapy in pineville nc for PT. Then a few months later when a spot for OT came in he started it then. And then later on Speech. when Lou was 17 months old Sam was born we still wasnt gettin no where He had to be carried everywhere. His terriable 2s started coming in and lets not forget about his 15 month molars. He was wanting to start potty training then to. but he couldnt walk. so at 22 months His PT said lets put him in a AFO, leg brace, to strengthen up his right leg and with in a week he started pulling up. with in 2 weeks he started takin baby steps in another 2 weeks he was walkin full speed, falling but he was walking. His therapist was proud and me and momma was proud. at age 3 he started school with Mrs. Charity and Miss. Mona at Child Development center. they wanted to put him in another brace so we got his pediatrictian to write a prescription for it. It said Cebral Right Hempistere on it. This is when we found out he had a touch of cebral Palsy. Dont know much about it but him not liking crowds and loving water so much made some since now. But everyone at CDC feel inlove with lou. They loved him they said he brightens their day. :) then Feb in 2010 on a wednesday we took Lou to the doctor, his pediatrictian because he would get randomly sick and they passed on as a virus the next day we took him to Piedmont Medical Center and they passed his getting sick as a virus. Friday morning on the 12th momma called Lous neurosurgeon and told her to take him up to Levine and get him checked out because something wasnt right. Momma rushed Lou to Levine Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, and they did a CT and it confirmed that his shunt was completely out. The doctor told came back and told momma they are getting a operating table ready now they have to get him into surgery his shunt has stopped working and he is in danger. McClanahan was out in Texas doin some kinda voluteer work so his 'coworker' did the surgery for him but kept McClanahan in the loop about EVERYTHING. In two days (Sunday) Lou got to come home and even started watching Tv just a little bit ! Then 4 months later He had another episode but this time he was screaming 20-30 mins at a time and then he would get sick with the watery vomit again. 11:15 pm momma got home and as she walked thru the door i told her i believe his shunt has went out again. And she said why? and i responded with he cryed for about 14 mins and then he got sick and it was nothing but clear fluid again like last time. And a few mins later Lou woke up complaining about his head hurting and got sick again. So we rushed him back up to the er. this time it wasnt that bad bc we caught it as soon as it was goin out. so the next morning he had another surgery. Recovery went great and they also put in a shunt assistatnce in to let it pump slower and not work so hard. Lou came home a few days after the surgery and started PLAYING with a car on the floor, first time in 4 years! a year later Lou went to his neurosurgeon for his annually checkup and it was discovered that he was overdraining so they spiked up his shunt to let it not over drain so much. McClanahan referred to Lou as "We have a tiger by its tail" He wanted to get him on some medicine so he can calm down because he said he did not need no ct to show that Lou does infact have ADHD so with in the next few months after he started school we got him on Ridilyn but it didnt workout, He is now on Methephenidate ER 20mg and it helps him out ALOT ! He is able to focus and he actually likes his medicine, Lou was not able to comprehend alot of the things that was goin around him and he knew it He is not noticing alot of things that he wasnt able to, he can count to 20 and knows how to write his name now. In 2012 Lou had another CT scan at his annually checkup and the Practical nurse, Amy, said that he is still overdraining and she was shocked because normally when it happens the shunt automatically malfunctions because everything gets sticky in the head, well LOUS ISNT. So they raised his shunt to the maximum which is 190. Amy said that since he isn't showing any signs of any damage or worriedness they was going to leave it alone but we would be lucky if he doesnt have to go thru another shunt surgery. Guess what ! Its another year later and he hasnt had another surgery :) His current shunt just turnt 3 years old on June 5th. He goes back to McClanahan for his yearly checkup and CT in the beginning of August.
Hydrocephalus is just the beginning for Lou. After all of this has taken place Lou has been diagnosed with ADHD, SensoryProblem, CVI *Deals with the eyes* and even brain detteriation and brain hemmorging before birth. but the thing about the detteriation McClanahan said he has never seen it happen before but Some of Lous brain has came back ! Lou has and will continue to shock the doctors. Hes our Little miracle baby. And yes some days are harder then others but at the end of the day he can still put a smile on our faces.
