The Toughest of Decisions

I want to apologize for the delay in posts. The main reason I didn't post anything was because we were in a bit of a limbo trying to discern what God's voice was among the throng of doctors' voices. A decision had to be made about putting a shunt in Isaiah due to the large ventricles in his head. Isaiah has more fluid than he is supposed to in his brain. There are several possible causes but the dilemma came in deciding if the potential benefit outweighed the potential risks. The bottom line is shunts are notorious for problems. A shunt is inserting a piece of tube where a tube shouldn't be. When you put a piece of plastic in someone's brain it can get infected or clogged or moved. There can be bleeding or even death. These are all risks. But what could happen - what we are praying, is that none of these things occur. 

For some reason that isn't yet known, when you put a shunt in a child with congenital toxoplasmosis most of the time, their brain circulates the CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) better. Which allows the cortex (brain matter) to expand. With this growth comes a greater potential for cognitive development. 

Deciding to go ahead with this procedure has been a discussion Gabriel and I have been having for weeks. We've sought opinions from four neurosurgeons and several neurologists. It's difficult to make a choice that will affect your child for the rest of their life when you have experts whose opinions completely differ from each other.

It comes down to this. I had nothing to do with how Isaiah was put together. It's not like I thought to myself, hmmm, lets put some dark eyes and hair, round face, oh and let's throw some toxo in there too. God knit Isaiah together. And he did it to bring himself glory. We pray that Isaiah will have no problems with the surgery and no complications down the road. Please join us in praying that God will guide the surgeons' hands and that Gabriel and I will rely on God for peace in knowing that he is in control. Isaiah's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, November 6th, at 8:15am. God isn't bound by time so if you read this afterwards you can definitely still pray for us :)

I will do my best to post an update once things have settled down after the surgery but I can't promise anything. Check facebook for any quick updates. Thank you for all your support and prayers so far. To God goes all the Glory.