Nov 18, 2007

Nice Day

We had a nice day with Andrew today. It was emotionally difficult, but we got to spend some quality time with him, and then we each got to hold him. After that, he took another field trip to radiology for a CT scan. They scanned his head and belly, looking for confirmation of neurological deficit in his brain and getting another close look at his digestive system. They hope to learn from Andrew by correlating his behavior with his brain status; they've already seen some abnormal behaviors, and they expect to see corresponding defects in his brain physiology. Hopefully this will help with prediction of outcomes and courses of treatment for future infants.

He behaved himself during the trip to radiology and back, and has been doing fine since. They haven't made any modifications to his ventilator settings, but he's comfortable and stable. We haven't heard from the radiologist about the test results, but I'm sure those will be discussed when we talk to the doctors again on Monday.

In the "piling it on" department, we took Willow to the vet tonight. She's been yelping a bit when we pick her up recently, and she's shown some delicacy in her running and jumping. After a series of x-rays of her back and pelvis, they discovered what looks like a compressed and calcified disk in her spine. It didn't seem as pronounced as it could be, and she is acting normally aside from this transient pain, so they didn't deem it necessary to keep her there or perform surgery. We got a prescription for painkillers and steroids to help her recover at home; now it's just a matter of keeping her from re-injuring herself.

No comments: