Parents Should Have Backups, Like Quarterbacks

[Elspode]

I'm ready to call in the second string. The wife and I need a bye week.

My 23 year old is in hospital again, for pretty much the same thing as last Christmas. Searing headaches, diminished cognition, and...new this time out...a bit of amnesia.

He went back to the ER Tuesday night/Wednesday early AM for the second time in a little under two weeks. Again, Demerol and Tordal (sp?) didnt touch it. A CAT scan showed an increase in the size of his ventricles, so he was admitted, and now awaits the arrival of a nucleotide-based dye so that a shuntogram can be performed to ascertain the functionality level of his VP shunt. Yes, the same one that he had replaced in December.

All this caps off a month of having the two who still live at home back and forth from ER's for headaches, to follow up doctor appointments for same, and for in and outpatient psychotherapy for the youngest.

Sometimes it seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel, you know?

Anyway, the wife and I will be spending the upcoming days in the hospital, acting as advocates, monitors and interpretors for my oldest. Wish us luck.