So. . . I've already mentioned the problems we've been having with Charlie and the tantrums. Well, I've been really diligent and we're having less, but the Hubs and I are starting to wonder if maybe it's something more than the terrible twos.
You see. . . he's never inconsolable. . . for long. That was the big watch word when they discharged us is the very beginning--inconsolable. And we've been very good about bringing him in when it gets like that.
But it does seem a bit weird to us that kid who was formerly a human beam of sunshine. A child who is entertained by a particularly musical paper crinkle and who jumps for joy at the sound of his relatives' voices is suddenly less so. I find myself apologizing a lot because he's "tired" or "not in the mood" and that's just so strange.
Tonight was another mega-blow up. Night time has been a little tough, but tonight we stayed late at my MIL's house watching The Closer and when we got home we put Charlie straight to bed. Big mistake. The tantrum went on and on and finally we pulled him out of bed, did the evening routine two hours late, and put him in bed. Still rough, but better. It worried both of us, though. So the Hubs and I sat down tonight and googled all sort of things with regards to his little brain and we came up with this very interesting statistic: %30 of kids who experience shunt failure have mostly behavioral symptoms. Not the throwing up, the seizures, and the lethargy that they warned us about. At the end of last month the neurosurgeon adjusted Charlie's shunt to a setting that he preferred.
So tomorrow we're going to hit the ground running. See if we can get an appointment with the neuro for Wednesday and if not, we may just take our happy asses down to the emergency room and hang out until we get some service.
Could it be the shunt? Maybe. It could also be totally normal childhood development. I don't normally complain about having a kid with special needs, but at times like this I would LOVE to know someone else in the same position. Someone I could call on the phone to see what they think. But for now. . . we'll just worry.
