6 years ago today Adler had emergency shunt surgery. Adler has a VP programable shunt set at 1.5 to drain the excess water from his brain to his abdomen where it’s expelled naturally from the body. It was set at 2.0 for a few years but changed because of constant headaches. Dr. Dipatri is his neurosurgeon. He also did both of Adlers biopsies. His lower lumbar biopsy that gave us Adlers diagnosis of Pilomyxoid Astrocytoma brain cancer. He also did the cervical spinal biopsy that confirmed the BRAF mutation of the tumor so Adler could be on a trial drug that targets that specific mutation. He has saved Adlers life three times essentially. But the shunt surgery literally did save him, not just give us the the direction in which to go for life saving treatment. He’s amazing. Adler calls him Aquaman. Fitting. He actually gave him and Aquaman action figure and it’s in the windowsill of his office. It all went so fast. From the MRI, to the docs coming in and showing us the devasting results to signing consent forms at 2am and the nurse preparing his head by 6am. Dr. Dipatri came in around 8 and soon enough Adler was in surgery. And that was just the beginning.

from Life with our little Super Hero Adler Bear https://ift.tt/2Th9ABc

Adler