Go Go Thomas

We are all up in Thomas the Tank Engine sayings in here and I think it's fitting because this little guy is pretty awesome, like the little engine that could. He is so laid back. I have only seen him fussy once or twice in his first week of life and he has had to endure so much already. He just kind of keeps going and rolls with the punches. We had our VCUG test yesterday to test for kidney reflux and to see how well he can empty his bladder. The great news is no reflux right now. He can only empty his bladder halfway so we started straight cathing him yesterday, 4 times a day. Unfortunately, there is more coming his way. Today we have a head ultrasound and we are placing (do you like I how say 'we' when it has nothing to do with me...I am just piggybacking on his awesomeness!) a PICC line for him to get his antibiotics through to help ward off infection from his upcoming shunt surgery. Tomorrow we have bloodwork to do and either an MRI or a CT scan, then on Saturday we have shunt surgery. My instinct makes me hate all this invasive medical stuff and all the tubes and wires coming off of him and machines constantly monitoring him and basically making a barrier between him and I, but yesterday as I was watching him and seeing the fluid drain from his brain through his external shunt and hating the noise of the machines and beeps in that room, it occurred to me that all of this is saving his life. If he had been born at another time and place it is likely he could not have made it. Without a shunt in his brain, all that fluid would be doing some serious and probably fatal damage to his brain. I wouldn't pick to have him hooked up to all of this and go through any of this, but if it weren't for 'all of this' we wouldn't have him and we definitely would never get to bring him home. Yes, I said home....one day he will get to come home. Probably one day soon, and it's because of all these wires and machines and inventions. So today I am going to appreciate the life giving wires and tubes and the music of the machines and beeps.