Meet Holli and her son Michael. My goodness his cuteness is off the scales and his story is just downright heartbreaking, but ends on a positive note. I think Michael and his mom are rock stars....what a story. Take peek! I have a 9 year old son named Michael Keith Oatis. His birthday is January 17 2005. When he was 2 1/2 he started to complain his neck hurt him, and it became more frequent as time went on. In 2008 Michael was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia. July of 2008 Michael had his first two surgeries. The first surgery was a decompression. The second was do to a muscle opening in the neck, and he leaked fluid out of his incision. From July to September we were in the ER two to three times a week. Michael had a high fever (103*) for a month. Childrens Hospital never admitted him. He had several spinal taps during his ER visits also. September 08 we took him to Vanderbilt in Tennessee where his next two surgeries took place. Michaels 3rd surgery was to clean out the infection in his neck Children’s hospital couldnt find. This is why he was running fever for so long. His 4th surgery was a VP shunt was placed because he got hydrocephalus after his second surgery. In January 09 Michael was unable to move his neck he had to turn his whole body in order to look around because the syrxi or pocket of fluid in his spinal cord covered most of the spinal cord. The Dr at Childrens stated she tried to remove the syrnix well she didnt do something right therefor his syrnix reversed. We came home from Tennessee and went to Tulane hospital. His 5th surgery was the placement of a syringo plural shunt and another decompression surgery. His 6th surgery Jan 09 a week later was to clean the infection out of his neck again. After this surgery I had to teach Michael how to crawl and then to walk again because he was so weak and had no balance. Michael s 7th surgery in May of 09 was due to scar tissue building up in his neck and again he was unable to turn his neck. He suffered a stroke during this surgery and lost his left side. He was then sent to children’s for impatient rehab to learn how to walk again. He now was put in a leg brace because of foot drop. His fingers stayed balled in a fist this is called tone. He finally got to come home July 9th. Michael went almost a year with any surgery then started to say his shoulder hurt and something was sticking him in his thought, and his neck was also getting stiff again. An MRI was done and the syrnix was larger. When the Tulane Dr went in for Michael s 8th surgery was February 2010 he found that the scar tissue had closed around the plural shunt endings. So the shunt was removed and a new one was put in it was a syringo parietal shunt. A piece of shunt was left in the left plural cavity of the lung. Michaels 9th surgery February 23, 2010 was because his bladder wasnt emptying all the way and his bladder filled up which pushed his intestines out of the incision on the inside of his tummy and he had a hernia that had to be repaired. Michaels 10th surgery, Michael came down with very bad pneumonia and infection in his lungs they removed the piece of plural shunt that was left in. He was intubated for a while. We went to children’s for rehab because Michael couldnt walk or pick up his arm. We came home April 1st. Michaels 11th surgery was July 10th 2010.July 8th Michael got up with a bad headache and could barely walk he was also vomiting. Michael slept all day and only got up when we tried to get him up.He was pale, lethargic, and glossy eyed. We took him to the hospital and an MRI was done. His ventricles were larger and the entire 4th ventricle of his brain was full of fluid. The shunt had fallen out of his neck and traveled down his body. The Tulane Dr placed a shunt directly into the 4th ventricle of his brain and went to far and touched his brain stem and the shunt stayed on his brainstem for a week. They connected this shunt to the VP shunt.As a result from the shunt hitting his brainstem Michael’s left side of his face didnt work he couldnt move the lip, eyebrow, or forehead . He also sees double out of his left eye. One doctor told me he didn’t think this surgery would work after the surgery was over because he has a low pressure in his head. Michaels 12th surgery July 20th 2010 We went back to the hospital only being home a little more than a day because Michaels face got worse both eyes were crossed his left side of his face was swollen and he was screaming with his left eye hurting. The Tulane Dr went in and pulled the 13mm off of Michael’s brainstem, and they had also bent the y connector putting it in so they put a new y connector in also. Michael came home the 15 the of august. Michael had 2 eye surgeries at Childrens to correct his eyes and the woman just kept making things worse. She wanted to do a 3rd surgery and we said no way.He had been wearing eye patches also to try and make the musels in his eyes stronger. I contacted Tulane and Dr Gordan did his 4th eye surgery to correct everything Childrens messed up. Along with two different pairs of eye glasses his eyes are almost back to 100%. His eyes were tilted,crossed,and uneven, Michaels last surgery was November 2012 surgery 16. Michaels left leg had become super tight and his headaches were bad again the Dr did an Mri and discovered his 4 thvent shunt was back on his brainstem and blocking fluid from flowing. They went in and pulled the shunt away from the brainstem. Michael is going into 4th grade and makes all As and Bs.He is happy and only sometimes gets headaches.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:03:00 +0000
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