Since Angelbaby has hydrocephalus, she also has a VP shunt. It has only failed two times. It does make all the ‘normal’ stuff a little odd though. Here is an example:

All day yesterday, Princess was complaining of an ear ache. I assumed her cold had caused an ear infection and was planning to take her to the doctor on Monday. In the meantime, she had a fever and got showered with attention as all sick children usually do. Later in the day, Angelbaby started fussing and complaining of an ear ache. Same ear as Princess. Well, at this point I thought that she was just being 3 and wanting extra attention for the same thing that her sister had. We gave her a little extra attention and went on about our day. By bedtime, Angelbaby was crying fiercely, holding her ear, screaming and kicking, and her left eye lid was drooping. This is where the wondering about the shunt comes in. I thought that A) Her ear really does hurt. Maybe her ear tubes became dislodged and she has a horrible ear infection or B) Her shunt is malfunctioning and the only way she has seen recently to address pain was to complain about an ear ache or C) I am going to brush this off as nothing and she won’t wake up in the morning because I let it go on too long. Now C is the most irrational thought so it gets dismissed. A & B move to the top of the list of what is wrong. I decide that if she can sleep, it is not that big of a problem and if she wakes up screaming in pain, then I will take her to the ER to find out what is wrong.

We all slept, somewhat peacefully, through the night. When she woke up, she was in a good mood and ready for the day. I checked her ear and there was a chunk of earwax and lots of yucky looking fluid. Had I seen this on any of the other kids, I would have lamented about how awful it was that their ear must hurt so bad and vow to rush them to the doctor first thing. Angelbaby though makes me think differently. I was suddenly relieved. I knew for sure it was not a shunt malfunction. I knew I had to take Princess to the doctor but seriously debated about the necessity of taking Angelbaby to the doctor as well. I knew her ear tubes were now working and the fluid would drain like it is supposed to. Why would the doctor need to see that? Well, since Princess had to see the doctor and most likely Angelbaby would be there in the office with us, I sprung for the extra $20 co-pay and had her ear checked out by the doctor as well. Princess came home with oral antibiotics for her ear infection and Angelbaby came home with antibiotic drops for her ear infection.

Back to normal. Wiping snotty noses, administering antibiotics, and cleaning up Buckaroo poo. But Buckaroo is a story for another day.