Micah's nuerosurgical checkup

We took Micah to Primary Children's Hospital for a follow-up appointment with his personal neurosurgeon yesterday. A fresh CAT scan indicated that the new shunt is working well: both his right and left ventricles look much reduced (a good thing). The doctors remain concerned about his "fourth" ventricle. It's located in the back / base of the skull and looks both a bit over-full and somewhat full-er than the last time we checked it out (a month ago). This ventricle can impinge on areas of the brain that control sight, eating-related musculature, etc. We're to go back for another look-see in a month.

Micah's doing well overall. He's generally a happy camper and seems more responsive every day (to me, anyway). He'll even smile socially every now and then (that is, in response to some outside stimulus). We visited a mobile clinic at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind for a comprehensive developmental checkup a few weeks ago. Either I'll add a quick report on that visit later, or Melissa will do so. Overall, the news was good (especially where his prospects for mobility / motor deficits are concerned).

Mikeyball

Micah has a favorite toy. It's tough to describe, but that's what pictures are for, no? He explores it with his fingers and toes to some extent, but he's much more interested in learning about it with his tongue. He's a snake at heart, I guess.

Spencer's grave

A few weeks ago, Melissa and I finally decided it was time to design Spencer's headstone. In the first place, we held off because we were worried that we might have to design two instead of just one. More recently, we've just not been in the mood. We felt that the time was right now.

Melissa did most of the design-work. The stone was installed a week or so and we visited it as a Family Home Evening activity last Monday. We hope you like the pictures.

Exciting weekend

On Friday morning, Micah started throwing up. This, on top of a bulging soft-spot, led Melissa to take him into the emergency room here in Logan for a look-see. They concluded that he his shunt might be malfunctioning and transported Micah and Melissa to Primary Children's Medical Center in SLC by ambulance--with lights and sirens and everything. I followed them down a bit later after squaring our boys away at kindly neighbors' houses.

CAT scans and x-rays convinced the PCMC staff that the shunt was working just fine. Instead, they reasoned that the shunt (which is on his right-hand side) had worked so well that it had drained the right-hand ventricle to the point where it had closed and was no longer "communicating" with the left-hand ventricle. Thus, the left ventricle no longer benefited from the draining services of the shunt on the right side. To solve the problem, the PCMC neurosurgical team decided to install another shunt on the left side.

The surgery (on Saturday morning) went fine. Micah is having somewhat of a hard time bouncing back: he had to take on two doses of morphine last night and hasn't picked up where he left off eating-wise, either. But the PCMC staff still feels that we'll likely be able to take him home this evening.

Here are a few pictures of Micah in the hospital pre-surgery...







...and here are some pictures of our poor little kiddo post-surgery. He looks pretty knocked-about, but he's going to be OK. The new shunt should immediately take pressure off of his little brain and knock out his headache and nausea. The "DB" initials on his temple are an autograph from his neurosurgeon, Dr. Brockmeyer... I guess they jot on kiddos to confirm that they've discussed the procedure with the parents and to mark which side of the patient ought to be prepped for surgery...

Good morning, Micah

Micah woke up this morning as I headed out the door for work. He has seemed (to me, anyway) more alert and visually attentive the last couple of days. His eyes are pretty clearly brown, now--we couldn't tell for the longest time--and he appears to be learning how better to use them. I grabbed a couple of photos...

Spencer video slideshow

I've created a video slideshow of Spencer's short life. I hope y'all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.



[NOTE: If you see this post in the next couple of hours, the video might not yet be available for viewing. Please check back tomorrow and things ought to be ready to roll. Google reserves the right to review anything they host, which makes sense in this litigation-happy era, and the review process can take several hours.]

More pictures...

Only time to jot down a little news and post a few photos today. Micah's up to 11 pounds and small change. He's generally giving us at least one stretch of 3-4 hours' sleep per day, the kindly soul. A recent eye-exam didn't tell us anything conclusive about his prospects for vision over the long run, but it did alert us to the fact that his optic nerves are something like 50% as thick as they ought to be. We're working with Micah's physical therapists to exercise his eye-muscles along with his others.

More later!