Lumbar Puncture

I wanted to let everyone know that Hope will be having her lumbar puncture on Friday. The purpose of this is to test for Hydrocephalus. The best explanation I have come up with, if you take 2 Liter of Sprite and shake it up, there is a pressure build up. If you try to stick anything else in the bottle, it won't go or will be pushed back out. There are ventricles in your brain that make spinal fluid and it is carried all the way down the spine. Hydrocephalus is the brain making too much spinal fluid, like the Sprite bottle, there will be severe pressure. The symptoms of Hydrocephalus are very similar to Cerebral Palsy, which Hope has. If she does have Hydrocephalus, some of her symptoms could subside; not all. It would also explain why her pump was pushed out of her body. If she does have this, she will most likely have a shunt put in (a pump in her head to drain her excess fluid).
The results of the spinal tap will either show high pressure (shunt), no pressure (try pump again) or high normal. If it comes back high normal she will need additional testing. At this point they will make a hole in her skull and put probes on her ventricles for 48 hours to get the accurate pressure.
Friday should be an all day event but not over night. I will keep you posted!