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.

Summer Pictures

Sorry Graham, I had to share this. It is too amazingly terrible. This incident has been dubbed "poop socks." This is the by far the worst poop experience to date.

 

These pics are from Lake Day with our Sunday School Class at church. These boys were born in July, August, September, and October of last year.

All the kiddos and their daddies.

 

  Scott looks all innocent but he is after Graham's paci!

These are a few pics from the 4th of July at the river with the Millers.

 This is my Aunt Diane and my cousin Kelly's baby boy, Logan, born 2 months after Graham.

 

9 Months - Big Head

At Graham's 9 month check-up with the pediatrician we discovered that Graham's head had grown rapidly since his 6 month check-up, which was concerning. The pediatrician contacted the neurosurgeon and they scheduled Graham for an MRI the following week. They were concerned that fluid might be gathering in the brain due to the stenosis (narrowing) at the top of his spine.

Today we took Graham for the MRI. It was a quick scan and so he didn't have to be sedated. We met with a new neurosurgeon afterwards. The other neurosurgeon we met with originally left Duke since we were there last. The MRI looked the same as the one done in May. There is no issue with the brain... Graham just has a big head! We are very thankful that no immediate action is necessary. The new doctor had a slightly different philosophy on when to do surgery. She thinks babies do great with the surgery and that delaying surgery when the stenosis is delaying development is not beneficial. I think she would be ready to do the surgery right away except that Graham just had heart surgery in March so she wants to give his body as much time as possible to recover before another surgery.

We go back in 6 weeks (Aug. 20) for a CT scan and neurosurgeon appointment. The CT scan will give a better image of the bone than the MRI. The doctor is not sure if the stenosis is being caused by the C1 vertabrae or the base of the skull, but thinks it's the C1 vertabrae. Surgery would involve removing the vertabrae which apparently is not needed for stability or anything else. The surgery will take about an hour and the hospital stay will be about 3 days. Graham's long term prognosis is great. He shouldn't have any future problems but shouldn't be allowed to play collision sports like football, boxing, or wrestling... but those were already probably ruled out because of the heart. I guess Graham will have to run track or be in the band or something!

8 Months!

I am a little behind in posting Graham's 8 month pics, but here they are.

Summer Fun and Pneumonia

Well things have been busy so I haven't had a chance to post about recent happenings. We'll cover pneumonia first and then the fun stuff.

Graham developed some congestion last week and woke up with a cough Saturday morning. I called the pediatrician to see if we should be concerned, knowing they were only open until noon. They wanted to see him and then sent us to the ER for a chest xray because Graham was breathing a little fast. I debated about whether he actually needed to go to the ER ended up going. They did a chest xray and after a day spent with doctors decided he just had a cold and wanted to put him on some lasix in case there was some fluid in the lungs. Tuesday morning Graham woke up with a fever and his breathing was extremely fast. I gave him some tylenol and called the pediatrician who suspected pneumonia and told us to go back to the ER. They did another chest xray and it didn't look much different but decided that with the fever it was likely pneumonia and sent us home with another round of antibiotics (he was just on it a week ago for an ear infection). Graham is still congested and sounds like Darth Vader with emphysema. It is a challenge to get amoxicillon, lasix, acid reflux medicine, and tylenol in him. But overall he is doing ok. I took him back to the pediatrician today and he didn't have any concerns. He said he is not contagious but that he will probably have the congestion for a few more days.

We went to the Laneys for Memorial Day weekend and Graham and his cousin Hayes got in the pool! Graham wasn't so into it because he was ready for a nap but we got a few pics! And last weekend we took Graham to the neighborhood pool for the first time. I was skeptical that he would like the pool because the water was cold, but he tolerated it. Matt and I held him in the pool for a half hour or so.