Hodge Podge of Updates

Isaiah giving me a little smirk

Post-Shunt

For those who didn't see on facebook, Isaiah's surgery went "smooth as silk" according to his neurosurgeon. Dr. Dauser was also able to tell us some relieving news. Isaiah's pressure was up. A normal intracranial pressure for a newborn is 15. Isaiah's ICP was 20. What this means is that we most likely would have had to put a shunt in eventually, and doing it sooner rather than later will hopefully increase the chances of better cognitive development. The best case scenario is that Isaiah's cortex will expand to fill in the space that the excess fluid was occupying. We have a follow up 'quick' MRI (which does not require sedation) and an appointment with Dr. Dauser immediately following so he can tell us how things look.

So far in terms of our observations, Isaiah's eyes seem to be working together more. His left eye still deviates to his nose most of the time, but it mid-lines and moves with the right eye much more than it used to. Since the surgery he has been babbling and smiling much more as well. We had an appointment with a new neurologist (since we switched some of our doctors over to ones in the same hospital as our neurosurgeon) and Isaiah talked to her and smiled more than we had ever seen him do in one sitting. He actually gave Gabriel four big smiles in a row earlier today too. So exciting!

Please continue to pray that Isaiah's shunt is infection and obstruction free. Any infections in the first six months after surgery are still considered "post-op" infections, so while the risk is always there, it decreases significantly once we've reached the six month mark. There is a 30-40% chance of revision (infection or obstruction) the first year of the shunt and 3-4% every year after that. While we are not unrealistic about the probability of Isaiah having to have another surgery, we also know that some children get a shunt put in and never have a problem afterwards. We would LOVE for Isaiah to be on that side of the statistics :)

Early Childhood Intervention

 

Texas has a program called ECI where babies and children up to three can receive therapy services to help with development. They come to our house and help us work with Isaiah doing purposeful play to ensure we are doing everything we can to help his cognitive abilities. Right now we are seeing a speech pathologist (once a month), a developmental therapist (three times a month), and an occupational therapist (once a week). We are trying to set up vision therapy as well. According to his entry evaluation (which was about a month ago), Isaiah is in the 1-2 month range for most areas (for example he isn't making very many consonant sounds) but we feel there isn't any reason he won't continue to develop. We just don't know at this point if he will always be a few months behind, if his delay gap will continue to increase, or if he will eventually catch up to other babies his age. Time will tell.

Between ECI, doctor's visits, and twice a week blood draws, we are pretty busy around here. But I am thankful that we live in a city with all these resources! Gabriel and I have also discussed multiple times that if I wasn't already a stay at home mom, I would have to become one. I am so thankful that God has continued to give Gabriel a job where he can provide for our family. 

A loving look from big brother

I also want to point out that Morgan is doing extremely well. He is very gentle with Isaiah when he gives him multiple hugs and kisses every day. Morgan gets his own band-aid during Isaiah's weekly blood draws and loves to show them off. It's amazing how observant he is. I was on the phone spelling Isaiah's name to someone and Morgan looked at me and said, "Doctor?" He has been a trooper and an amazing big brother. I am so thankful for him. 

I'll leave you with links to two short videos. The first is a video of Isaiah talking to me. You won't be able to see anything because we were in the dark since I was trying to get him to go to sleep. But he wasn't having any of that! :) The second is very short but I wanted to show off how Morgan goes and finds toys and brings them to Isaiah to play with. He says, "Here you go Isaiah. Here." and Isaiah gives Morgan a little smirk at the very end.

Isaiah Babbling

Big brother Morgan