Julian's fourth craniectomy was on September March 25th, 2013.


It was in Oakland, California at the Children's Hospital, performed by Doctor Peter Sun and Bryant Toth.  We weren't even able to meet with any of the craniofacial team at our local hospital because they had some personal issue with the team in Oakland, and they refused to see my son merely because of whom his previous surgeons were.


I hope it is hard for them to sleep at night.


So, we headed to California and took Julian to Disneyland:


Then we took him to see the guys at the fire station (shift C) who were part of the Oakland Random Acts organization.  He got to play in their big hook-and-ladder as well as in the play-size engine on the faux-fire-station they built in the yard of the Family House owned by Children's Hospital of Oakland and built by the firefighters.



Then we took him in for the tests.  Neurosurgery:


Opthamology:


Cardiology:


...and Blood Work:


Everything came back fine (or at least fine enough for surgery to proceed...there is a bit of an issue regarding his heart that is going to lead to heart surgery...

click that tab to the left if you want to read about it).


The morning of, he was up and drawn upon:


Then it was time for snuggles and to hand him off to the knife-wielders:


He work up pretty quickly, had juice and a banana:


Then he snuggled up and slept:


Played around with his new car:


...and waved to everyone he set his lovely little eyes on:


Then he was up and playing on the engine in the play-ground 36 hours later, with a big grin on her face:


A few days later, we were all hiking through Lithia Park in Ashland, while it misted and Jubie twirled his umbrella:


His stitches this time were the dissolvable kind, and he was back in a helmet and in school in just a couple of days.