I used to wake him at 7am for his therapy session. One morning his physiotherapist stopped me. “How much is he sleeping?” she asked. Then she said something I was not ready to hear: “The sleep is part of the therapy. In some ways it is the most important part.”
The doctor wrote two things on the prescription that morning. The first was a TB medicine. The second was steroids. I asked what the steroids were for. He said: to reduce the swelling. I nodded as though I understood exactly what swelling meant in the context of a child’s brain.
He started banging his head against the cot rail. Not out of temper. Not playfully. With a rhythm and persistence that felt wrong — a two-year-old pressing his forehead into the bars again and again, unable to tell us what he was feeling.
The anaesthetist wore cartoon-print scrubs, and that small detail undid me more than the consent forms had. Someone had chosen those scrubs to make children less afraid, which meant children came through that room every single day — and somehow that thought steadied my hands.
VP shunt failure signs every parent should know – the 7 warning symptoms, what shunt failure looks like in infants, and exactly when to go to A&E.
Living with a VP shunt – what daily life is really like, which activities are safe, MRI rules, talking to schools, and the warning signs that matter.
Twenty minutes to understand what was happening inside my son’s brain, what the surgery would involve, what the risks were, what recovery looked like, and what the rest of his life might hold. This article is every question I wish I had asked.
A study published in Child’s Nervous System in 2021 found something important for every family managing hydrocephalus in a child.
🔬 Medically Reviewed by Dr. Maryam Tahir — Consultant Neurologist | FCPS (Neurology) | MRCP (UK) | Assistant Professor, Faisalabad
Hydrocephalus and school – what teachers need to know, how IEP and 504 plans work, useful accommodations, and a script for your first meeting.
