After a few minutes, we go into a room just outside of the ward to have a shunt put into Kieran's hand. As you might imagine, Kieran doesn't like this part. Though he struggled a lot in the beginning, he now sits fairly quietly and tries to ignore the doctor while he or she sets the canula. Once everything is in place, they have to wrap his hand up with bandages to keep everything in place (a couple pieces of tape just don't do the job).
A little while after we return to the ward, they bring out the fluid to be pumped into Kieran. They attach a long lead from Kieran to a small machine. This machine regulates the speed at which the fluid is sent into his system. The infusion generally takes four hours, during which time nurses periodically come to check Kieran's temperature, pulse and blood pressure.
Meanwhile, Kieran plays in the ward with the toys or the other patients. He doesn't generally use his heavily bandaged hand, but that's more because it's inconvenient than anything else. He's generally very active for the whole time unless he can be convinced to take a nap.
When he's had the full dose, the nurse disconnects the lead and attaches it to some saline solution which they use to push the rest of the liquid out of the lead and into Kieran. Finally, a nurse comes to disconnect the lead then remove the shunt. Kieran really doesn't like this part, but he quiets down as soon as it's all over. After all, we're free to go at that point and riding around in the back pack is too interesting to make a fuss.
