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.

Neurosurgeon Appointment

We took Graham to see a neurosurgeon at Duke on Wednesday. In short, he has cervical stenosis and dysplasia of the skull base and will most likely need surgery at some point but they want to wait until he is older. His bones are still growing and developing and babies do not tolerate the surgery well. It is another wait as long as we can as long as he is doing well kind of game, except this time we could be waiting several years. We will take him in for periodic MRIs and watch for symptoms such as loss of use or movement of arms and legs. General anesthesia is risky for Graham because while asleep his head could move too far back and cause problems. (Of course we didn't know this the last 3 times he went under anesthesia. Thank you, Lord, for protecting him!) The doctor thinks that they can do this new quick scan MRI that only takes 2 minutes, so Graham will not have be sedated. Hopefully they will be able to get the picture they need this way. We take him back in 3 months (August 20) for this quick MRI and a check-up with the neurosurgeon.

The doctor said he is not in any immediate danger. We should go about life as usual. It is possible that as he grows things could improve but the doctor seemed to think it is unlikely that it would completely go away. But we are praying that the Lord would heal his spine and heal his eyes and that he would protect him daily.

Here are some of the MRI pictures.

 If you look closely you can see an arrow point to the top of the
spinal column and you can see the narrowing of the spinal cord.

In this first picture you can see the white area surrounding a gray circle. That is the spinal cord where it is not pinched. In the second picture you can see that the spinal cord is pinched.

MRI Results

The MRI went well on Thursday. Graham was mostly content while waiting without eating (b/c he went under general anesthesia). He was only away from us for an hour and a half. He did fine with the anesthesia, woke up quickly, and ate as soon as we got to see him. We left the hospital by 11:45am. Praise the Lord that everything went smoothly.

Late Thursday Thursday afternoon the ophthalmologist called with the preliminary results. The MRI showed that Graham's spine is narrow at the very top, at the C1 vertebrae, and is compressing the spinal cord. In technical terms, "Hypoplastic posterior arch of C1 with severe central canal stenosis and cord compression." The MRI also showed fluid in the middle ear, an ear infection. The ophthalmologist said the findings needed to be seen by a neurosurgeon and didn't really explain the nystagmus (bouncy eyes).  I took Graham to the pediatrician on Friday to discuss what to do next. The pediatrician diagnosed the ear infection and wrote a prescription for an antibiotic. He also said we needed to make an appointment to be seen by a neurosurgeon at Duke this coming week. Neither the ophthalmologist nor the pediatrician knew what to make of the MRI results. The pediatrician said that with the what the MRI showed, Graham should have trouble moving his arms and legs, but that is not the case.

I was unable to make an appointment on Friday, so hopefully I can get an appointment made tomorrow (Monday). We should know a lot more once Graham sees a neurosurgeon. Please continue to keep Graham in your prayers.

My First Mother's Day

I feel so blessed to be Graham's mom! We had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Matthew's family was in town and we went to Pullen Park on Saturday. Graham enjoyed riding the train and carousel. Then we made a quick trip to urgent care because Graham's right eye was red and puffy and draining. Pink Eye. Then we had dinner and celebrated the birthdays of Melanie (Matt's mom) and Jason (Matt's brother).

We dedicated Graham at church on Sunday and then had lots of family over for lunch. And after everyone left Matt watched Graham and let me nap! It was a great day.

Last week we took a little class in preparation for the dedication. The children's pastor talked about the story of the paralytic that was lowered through the roof to get to Jesus. (Mark 2:1-12) Jesus forgives the man's sins and then heals his body. Jesus forgives his sins first because that was his greatest need. This was a good reminder that Graham's greatest need is to know Jesus as His Savior. We have spent a lot of time praying and being concerned about his physical needs and we need not forget his spiritual needs. The dedication itself went well. All the parents and babies lined up on the stage and committed to raising their baby in the way of the Lord. What a great responsibility!