Update on Graham's Spine

Graham had a CT scan and appointment with the neurosurgeon at Duke yesterday. The scan only took a few minutes and Graham did great for it. Matt stayed in the room with him and sang to him and he didn't cry at all. They strapped him down and slid him into a big O ring. The scan showed that the C1 vertebra is not fully formed. The back of the vertebra is not closed and so it is actually cartilage that is pressing into the spinal chord. This means the surgery will be less invasive because removing cartilage is easier than removing bone. They want to remove the extra cartilage and then do something to prevent the bone from continuing to grow since that would cause more problems.

The neurosurgeon wanted a couple of additional X-rays to see if the C1 is bending as it should when Graham moves his head back and forth. We heard today that those X-rays looked fine. We are unsure of what will happen next. The neurosurgeon said we would come back in 2 months for an MRI but since then we realized she wants another sedated MRI and we are reconsidering the benefits of continuing to wait for surgery. I hope to speak with the neurosurgeon tomorrow to ask a few more questions. Please pray for wisdom for us and the doctor as we decide what is the best course of action.

10 Months Old

Graham is 10 months old! He is sitting up with support and starting to eat finger foods. He is nursing less now that he is eating 3 good meals a day, which means I can leave him for a few hours if I need to. Graham still prefers to sleep in his swing but we will have to master the crib soon because he is outgrowing the swing. He is in 9 month clothing but will be in 12 month soon. He is such a joy. Thank you Lord for this sweet little boy!

Here are a few 10 month pics:

 And while we're at it... a few other recent pics.

This is actually from the 4th of July. My dad took this precious pic.

Graham sitting in the bumbo playing!

Funny face!

In the kiddie pool in our neighborhood. Splish splash!

Thunder kept us out of the pool so we tried the swing for the first to time. A little wobbly but he liked it!

Progress!

As a parent, when your child reaches milestones it is very exciting. When your child with significant health issues reaches milestones it is beyond exciting. It is relief. It is an answer to prayer. In the last few weeks Graham has made great progress in holding his head up, sitting up, and most recently putting weight on his legs! He is not sitting up unassisted yet, but he will sit supported, in the bumbo, or in the exersaucer without fussing. We are praising the Lord for this progress. For several months Graham made little progress in these areas and the neurosurgeon thought it may be related to the narrowing of his spine at the base of his skull. I don't know if his strides in development will delay surgery on his spine or not... but we are just glad to see him making progress. The neurosurgeon has given us no reason to think that his spine will correct itself and that Graham will avoid surgery... but I can't help but hope and pray that the Lord will just heal him. Even if He doesn't, I thank the Lord for the encouragement we have had recently.

On another positive note... we recently stopped giving Graham his acid reflux medicine and he seems to be doing fine without it. So, for the first time since he was a few weeks old he is not on any prescription medicine!!  We still give him a daily probiotic to help with digestion. Praise the Lord for another health milestone!

Here is a video of our little man, bouncing around in the exersaucer.