RETURNING TO RILEY

It's been 3 months since Micah's brain surgery in Indianapolis. With each passing day, he appears to be healing. He seemed to recover from the pain within the first week. Then, following the doctor's guidelines, the bandages were removed and the stitches eventually dissolved. The rest of the three months he has been working with a physical and occupational therapist toward developmental milestones that his brain and muscles were not able to coordinate due in part to the excess fluid causing pressure within his brain.

During just 3 months, he has made INCREDIBLE gains!

Just to mention a few: He can now pick up food, sit up unassisted, point at objects, crawl, climb, transition from vertical position to squatting in order to reach an object, and he can say over 75 words with correct association (including a few three-syllable words and two-word phrases!) He's very social and has a sweet personality. He's ticklish and has a really funny giggle. If we support him, he can stand and walk. And, with continued physical therapy, we believe that he will eventually walk all by himself. This kid is truly blessed.

We're seeing a lot of developmental gains, but the pediatric neurosurgeon also monitors the shunt to make sure it is working properly, so this week we went to Indianapolis for a 3-month post-surgery MRI to check his internal progress. The results were GREAT! His ventricles are reduced in size. They're still bigger than kids of his same age without hydrocephalus, but the shunt is working well and helping to control the amount of fluid. PRAISE GOD!!!

The doctor was very pleased with Micah's progress. He doesn't need any medicine and has no activity restrictions (although he said that he would not encourage Micah to try out for wrestling or tackle football someday, which is fine with us!) We do need to have another MRI in 6 months just to check to see that everything still looks good and we need to be vigilant and get him to a doctor immediately if he shows any sign of shunt infection or malfunction. However, from a medical standpoint, he's currently doing really well!!!

He loved the fish tank and other toddler-friendly activities in the MRI waiting room.

Micah's head has been measured so many times, he thinks he can do it all by himself!

With the successful result of this appointment, we are officially ready to move to our more permanent U.S. location in San Antonio, Texas. We said goodbye to Micah's current pediatric neurosurgeon and the nurses that have cared for our family, plus Micah's physical therapist and occupational therapist. (We will be continuing with new providers after the move.) It's always difficult to say goodbye to people who have made such a difference in our lives and have so greatly impacted our son's ability to acheive his potential. God truly provided us with the blessing of the exact doctors and therapists that we needed right now, and for that we are very grateful. We will always remember the love they showed toward our little boy!

Micah saying "Thank You God" on the way home from the hospital