Eli in Hospital Again

Eli was admitted to Yale-New Haven hospital today for the fourth time since we arrived here last August. Somehow, shunts being inscrutably mysterious beasts, the catheter "floated out" (Dr. Moratti's words) of her skull and is slipping down the back of her head. Eli will have surgery tomorrow at 12:45 ET to receive her fourth shunt. This time, praise Jove, the famous Dr. Duncan will himself perform the operation.

It's been a very rough day, especially for Lia, but we're surviving. Julia spent the afternoon with the LaDukes and came home bubbling with stories about what Cameron, Addie, and Callie did and said at various times. Eli's holding up reasonably well; she had a terrible night last night (which is why we knew something was wrong, though she was scheduled to meet with Dr. Duncan today anyway) and a couple hours ago went through a terrible ordeal of nurses trying to stick an i.v. in and take some of her blood out (her little body was content with the status quo ante). When I rescued her from the exam room, she was convulsing in terror but soon calmed down. I took her back to her hospital room and sang to her in Italian and gave her a blessing, after which she fell sweetly asleep in my arms.

Lia had no fond illusions when she took Eli in today. This morning she went to the grocery store and stocked up on foods for the culinarily inept so Julia and I won't starve in her absence and she packed her own bag and took it to Eli's appointment with her. Lia even diagnosed that the catheter was dislodged and the neurosurgeon who first looked at Eli, though skeptical at first of Lia's diagnosis, admitted she was right after feeling the shunt.

Anyhow, Dr. Duncan doesn't seem to think this will be very problematic--and he said "Now it's my turn" in a tone suggestive of a confidence that things will be done right this time (though he said it's not unusual with shunts to have a flurry of initial problems like Eli has had before things calm down considerably for a long period). We hope Eli will be back home for a longer stay quite soon.

And for those who complained that yesterday's post consisted of political rantings to the expense of any word about the eponymous family whose adventures this blog records, I can only say that, with all the word tuned in to the Chapman's blog for up-to-the-nanosecond reports on the life and times of little Jace Chapman, I hardly expected anyone to read it. And one reserves the unabridgeable right to rant at will to an audience of none.