CT Scan

Andrew's CT scan is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20th at 8 am. I'm already looking forward to the traffic nightmare I will face trying to get over there. For those of you not familiar with Atlanta, 285 is the interstate that goes around Atlanta like a circle. If you think of it as a clock, we live at about two o'clock. The Children's Hospital is at 12 o'clock. The area between 10 and two has some of the worst traffic in the whole city. It'll probably take me an hour to get there. Oh well, hopefully I won't have a screaming baby in the car. We won't be allowed to feed him in the morning, since he's not allowed to have anything to eat six hours prior to the procedure because of the sedation.

After the CT scan, we will go over to the doctor's office which is right on the same complex and go over the results. It'll probably be at that time that we schedule a surgery date or at least get an idea as to when surgery will occur. The doctor wanted to wait until Andrew was at least three months old before even thinking about surgery. He likes to do the surgery between three and six months. I'm hoping that we will be able to wait until the end of May so that I'm out of school.

More updates soon!

The Importance of Staying Alert

Today was one of those days. Jeremy had to work this afternoon, and I had some work I needed to do on my laptop. Unfortunately, I forgot the Golden Rule of Children: The amount of destruction created by two boys is inversely proportional to the number of eyes watching them. The fewer the eyes, the greater the destruction. This formula is increased exponentially when said boys are mischievous and too smart for their own good. So, I was moving along writing my mid-year update for the goals I need to write each year for school, and I was getting thirsty. I decided to get something to drink, and as I walked into the family room, I discovered that Matthew and Nathan had not been quietly watching TV as I thought. They had moved the couch into the center of the room and turned it so that it faced the TV. In the process, they had taken the rug and rolled into a ball in front of the TV. You can tell that I don't clean under the couch too often, because it was a little gross under there. I decided to get out my nifty Swiffer mop and mop the floor under the couch area. After I finished, it was time to feed Andrew, so I left the mop in the corner of the family room and went to feed him.

That was the point at which Matthew decided that I needed some help. While I was in the bedroom feeding Andrew, Matthew proceeded to empty the entire bottle of cleaning solution from the mop onto the floor. Nathan helped him until he figured out that if he tattled, he probably wouldn't get in as much trouble. So he comes running in the bedroom saying, "Matthew's playing with the mop!" I put Andrew down (who promptly started screaming since he wasn't done with his meal), and went into the family room. It looked like I was now standing in an overflowed stream. The floor was very wet. Matthew got sent to his room, and I told him he couldn't come out until the floor was dry. He was in his room for about 45 minutes since that was how long it took to dry the floor. Then, when I went to move everything back to its correct place, I discovered that it was really gross under the rug. So I decided to mop the rest of the floor. I didn't get much else done this afternoon, but my family room floor has never been cleaner! Matthew is also a couple of dollars poorer since I told him I was taking some money out of his bank to help pay for the bottle of cleaner he wasted. That made him more upset than getting sent to his room.

Neurosurgeon Visit

We went and saw the neurosurgeon yesterday. For all of the anticipation over the last few weeks, we didn't find out a tremendous amount. First, he can't give us an official diagnosis until we have a CT scan. So, we'll have that in a month. The doctor's office will call us with the actual appointment time. After the CT, we'll go straight to the neurosurgeon's for another visit. At that visit, he wants us to bring some dates that would work for surgery. From the exam, he said it looks like Andrew's sagittal suture is fused. The sagittal suture is the one that runs from the middle of the head back. Because that suture is closed, his head can't expand from the sides, so it lengthens front to back. The soft spot on the top of his head is smaller than it should be, and the soft spot on the back of his head has closed completely already. The surgery would involve cutting two strips of bone along the suture to allow for the head to expand. He'll probably stay in the hospital for 4 days or so, with one or two of those in Intensive Care to monitor how well he reacts to the anesthesia. The doctor was wonderful and very knowledgeable. His name is Dr. Andrew Reisner, so he related very well to our Andrew. Here is his group's website. He's on the home page holding a little girl's hand. He's also the director of Neuro Trauma at Children's Healthcare, so I know we're in good hands. He said they've done hundreds of these surgeries, and once corrected, it won't cause him any further problems. We'll keep everyone posted with updates as they come!

Once Every Four Years - Just Like the Olympics

We have snow here in Georgia! Here's a picture of the house.




According to the weather pundits, this only happens about once every four years or so. The boys have had fun playing in it. They both went out a couple of times today.



I went to the store earlier today to get our groceries for the week, and it was funny to watch everyone. One lady was telling the woman with her that they needed to stop at the gas station when they were done because she was on a half a tank, and she wanted to fill up since it was snowing. Another womans was stocking up on batteries in case the power went out. The lady in front of me spent almost $250 in groceries. Unless she has ten children, they'll have enough food to last them through until spring. Everyone was giving my cart funny glances. I was only buying what we needed for the week, and since I had already gone to the Farmer's Market earlier, I had more health and beauty items than I did food. It's supposed to be 40 tomorrow, so all of this snow will melt away by mid-afternoon. It will be slippery in the morning since we're expecting temperatures in the teens tonight. All of the roads are wet right now, so when it freezes tonight they'll get icy. It is really pretty though. Here's a shot of our yard from the back deck.

I have to be honest, this is the way I like snow. It looks pretty outside, it's not too hard to drive in, and it'll all melt by tomorrow! Can't complain too much.

Quick update on Andrew. We go to see the neurosurgeon on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what's happening after that visit.

I finally talked to a doctor late Monday night. At about 5:30, I was able to get a hold of the doctor's paging service, and after pretty much telling the lady I wasn't going to get off of the phone until she paged a doctor, she agreed. The doctor I talked to was the one who had been in on Monday, so she was able to tell me what she could remember from reading the x-ray report. Then, today, I called the office again to talk more in-depth with someone. I spoke to the nurse practitioner who originally saw him last Thursday (Has it only been a week?). Anyway, according to the radiologist's report, there is some partial fusing of the skull bones. I forgot to ask if it's just one suture or more than one, but from what I read, more than one is usually very rare. From this point, we need to be referred to a neurosurgeon, so she was going to fax all of his information to the surgeon today. She said we should hear from them by the end of this week. It sounds like we'll probably need to have a CT scan to give the doctor a better idea of what's going on. After that, who knows? It could be wait and see, it could be a helmet to help shape the skull, or it could be surgery. We'll have to let the surgeon tell us that. I was able to stop by school today and let my principal know what's going on. I'm scheduled to return to work on Monday, and I just wanted to let her know that the return date has become a little fluid. She was very understanding, and my sub is willing to stay next week if needed. Right now, it looks like I'll be back on Monday, though.