Delayed Updates are Good for You!

Yeah, yeah...I know how long it has been since I updated the blog. I blame Comcast, but that's a big, long story that I really don't want to get into again tonight. Instead, let's tell you what all has been going on over the last few weeks with us and the girls.

The weekend after the last update, we travelled up to Maryville to visit with the grandparents and help them pack up the house so they could move at the end of the month. Here's a short video of the girls helping out as much as they could.

So, McKenzie had her follow-up appointment in Birmingham with Dr. Oakes on June 23. We just went down for the day. Long drive back and forth but we ended up getting good news. They did a CT scan which showed that the cyst is still there but it is much smaller and does not appear to be growing at all. So, we've been told that we don't have to come back until next year. Yay! Unfortunately, we were not able to get a copy of the CT scan this time around so we don't have any pictures to post. That reminds me that I called about this a few weeks ago but haven't heard back. Hmmm...

A few days after we got back from Birmingham, our friend Laura was in town from Albuquerque, NM for a week. She invited us to come over with the girls and go swimming. We had been waiting for a few weeks to go swimming at my parent's house but they kept having issues with their pool to where we couldn't ever go swimming. So, to Laura's we went.

The girls seemed to enjoy their time in the pool, for a while. Here's a quick video of Lindsey and Laura taking the girls around the pool. Ignore the goofy hats...

We also did some stuff that could potentially be considered child abuse. Somewhere we heard that you blow in a baby's face so that they hold their breath and then you could dunk them. So, we decided to try it out...our kids are going to hate us someday...

My family has a lot of birthdays in the month of June. A lot...like 10. It's nuts. Unfortunately, the calendar got a little bit more crowded towards the end of the month. My cousin Ryan and his wife Esther had a baby on June 30. His name is Thijs Austin Sharpe. I didn't misspell it or anything. It's Dutch! Thijs is pronounced like "Twice" without the "W"...Tice. With him being born on the 30th, he got his own day all to himself. We already had my brother Michael on the 29th, Lindsey on July 1, and Ryan on July 2. Yay for babies! He's 8 pounds 8 ounces and still looks tiny. I don't remember the girls being that small even though he's a good 3 pounds bigger than McKenzie was at birth.

Back to the doctors, the last check-up showed that both Molly and McKenzie were anemic. Molly was just barely but McKenzie was pretty low. So, we got to give them an iron supplement in their first bottle of the day to hopefully raise the levels. McKenzie had her re-test on July 2. The initial results in the doctor's office showed that her iron levels were actually worse now than they were before. Therefore, McKenzie got to go to the hospital for a more complete lab panel. After a few days, the doctor called us and let us know that their in-office testing is just simply horrible and McKenzie was actually just fine. Gotta love unnecessary testing and treatments...

Next was the 4th of July weekend. The pool at my parent's house was finally ready for swimming so we spent both Friday and Saturday up there swimming a bit. Molly and McKenzie seemed to be a bit more comfortable being in the water. Here's a video of McKenzie splashing and Molly chilling...

Michael and Liza took a bunch of good pictures that I'll post in a few days. I figured that the videos will hold you over for now.

Lindsey and I got to have a date night on Friday. The girls spent the night with the grandparents while we went out to dinner and then went to a 10pm movie. Lindsey just about slept through the previews but perked up for the movie. We saw My Sister's Keeper...it's sad. Lindsey was crying like 20 minutes into it. Yikes.

It was nice to sleep in the next morning but we eventually got up and went back to the grandparent's to see the girls. Another day in the pool, some dinner and finally some fireworks. The girls didn't make it to see the fireworks. Maybe next year. The problem was that they went to sleep for an hour or so, we put them in their car seats and drove home. By the time we got home, the girls decided that they'd had a nice little 2 hour nap and now it was time to get up! At midnight!

I don't think so ladies...

Molly went back down pretty easy but McKenzie kept crying and waking her up. McKenzie settled back down after a bit and I think we were all in bed by 1. Whew...

So, that's pretty much it for now. Next week we are all going to Boone, NC with Lindsey's parents for a much needed vacation. We've got a pretty sweet cabin where we're going to hang out for 4 days or so. We've been looking forward to this for a while. Maybe we'll get some good pictures to share in a few weeks. Til then!

I am horrible...

My goodness, you should see the hate mail I'm getting claiming that I am neglecting this blog by not updating it. Harassment is coming via hurtful comments shouted across the room, emails coming from all directions, posts on Facebook, and even text messages that cost me $0.25 a piece since I don't have a texting plan (hint hint haters...)

Ok, so, what do we do about this? I guess we post an update. Yay...whatever...

This is going to be way picture heavy without much of my witty comments so I hope you all enjoy.

Alright, here we go back in time. Pictures from McKenzie's brain surgery back at the end of April.

This is the night before we left for Birmingham. This is Addie and McKenzie hanging out:

Once we got to Birmingham, Dr. Oakes marked and autographed the incision site for the surgery. Part of that mark is still there even today...

Here we are in the day surgery room. It's about 6:30am and McKenzie is wearing her awesome yellow surgical gown. She still looks pretty happy here...

Here we are post surgery and recovery room. We got to a real room on the floor by 10am or so. Here is mommy and McKenzie resting a bit. We're not so happy now...

A bit later and McKenzie is busy chewing on a duck that one of the nurses gave her before surgery.

This is the day after surgery once we'd been discharged from the hospital. We're in our hotel and obviously McKenzie is suffering the ill effects of the surgery...

And here is Molly. She took the opportunity to learn how to read while we were in Birmingham. Here she is enjoying the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Shhhh...don't interrupt me...

She had quite the set-up going here. We were rocking like 8 pillows...

Ok, moving on to something entirely new. After we returned from Birmingham, we decided to start the girls on some solid foods. The very beginning is rice cereal. The girls have matching high chairs but look so darn tiny in them.

Lindsey dressed for the occasion. Something that could get dirty if necessary...

One for McKenzie...

We're not really sure we like this...

And one for Molly...

The girls have done pretty well with solids so far. We've added avocado, oatmeal cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes. McKenzie still doesn't really care for solids but she's getting there. I'll post up a video of the process later...

Last event, Mother's Day 2009!

This was Lindsey's first Mother's Day. We spent the day at church and then with my family. Since we weren't able to get Easter pictures due to Molly's fun attitude, we decided to do some today.

Here's Lindsey with both girls.

And one where Molly isn't eating her wrist...

Individual shots with Molly first...

And now McKenzie...

And finally one with Molly and the best face ever...

Not sure if that's surprise, fear, shock, or what...but it's funny.

So, that's it for now. A bunch of pictures but that's what you've been asking for. We have our six month pediatrician visit in about a week. We'll get updated weights and measurements then and also see about getting some professional pictures taken.

One other fun thing was Lindsey's Mother's Day present. She got a new side-by-side stroller. It's from Baby Jogger and is called the City Mini Double. Anyone who wants to make a contribution towards this purchase is welcome to. It's an awesome stroller and it should last us for several years. I know Lindsey's thrilled to get away from the current Snap and Go bus she's driving.

So, hopefully you are all satisfied with the update. Til next time...

McKenzie's Brain Exploration

McKenzie's cyst fenestration took place this morning way too early. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30, had meetings with anesthesia, nursing, etc, and finally got into surgery about 7:30. The procedure took about 45 minutes. We met with the doctor right after. He told us that they had located the cyst and made a hole in one end of it. The fluid in the cyst was basically stagnant cerebrospinal fluid that was a bright canary yellow instead of the normal crystal clear. The doctor was able to draw a lot of that fluid off through the catheter. He said that when they looked at the cyst again via ultrasound there was a dramatic difference in size.

Dr. Oakes decided not to go back in and poke a hole in the other side of the cyst. Doing so would have required using a larger endoscope which could have cause additional damage to the brain tissue itself. The cyst will continue to drain into the ventricle of the brain where the fluid will be reabsorbed by the body.

The brain itself seemed to react fairly well. The brain tissue that had been pushed aside by the cyst started to fill in the cyst area right after the doctor punched the hole in it. That's a really good sign that the brain should go back to its' normal location without any issues.

We're in a room now where we'll stay overnight for observation. Tomorrow morning, we've got some additional blood work to check for infection as well as a CT scan to see what the cyst did overnight. We'll schedule a follow-up next week hopefully with our pediatrician to get the incision site checked for problems. We'll also schedule another CT scan in about 2 months and again at 1 year to check the cyst. If there is no additional growth, we'll pretty much be done.

We'll be in Birmingham for a few more days just to make sure that there aren't any problems. We appreciate all the support from friends and family over the last few weeks. It's certainly made the trip easier. We'll post pictures once we get home since I forgot the cable for the camera. Til then...

And the date is...

April 22nd. My baby is having brain surgery on April 22nd in Birmingham.

Yay.

We'll be meeting with the doctor on April 21st and doing our pre-admission stuff. As of right now we are the first surgical case for the day so we will have to be there at 5:30am (!) to get ready for surgery. As long as everything, we'll be on our way home on Thursday the 23rd. Sounds like a fun plan doesn't it?

So, let's take a look at why we're doing this. As I said yesterday, McKenzie had an MRI done and that is how they determined that there was indeed a cyst growing in her ventricle. Here's an image from the MRI.

Here we can see McKenzie's brain. The blue line is down the center of the brain. The left and right sides of the brain are supposed to be mirror images of each other. Obviously, one thing is not like the other.

The cyst is on the left side outlined in blue. If you look closely, you can see that it's kind of a grey, fuzzy area. The dark black below the cyst is the normal fluid that is supposed to be in the ventricle. On the right side, you can see the normal sized ventricle.

So, that's what they are going after. We're still working on our plans in terms of travel and stuff but we'll let you know if we need anything. We appreciate the support from our family and friends so far and ask that you continue to think about us and pray for McKenzie as the surgery date gets closer.

If I Only had a Brain...

So it's time for an update of sorts. McKenzie had her doctor's appointment in Birmingham with Dr. Oakes today. We had to wait until she was a few months old so she could handle the anesthesia better since the doctor wanted an MRI of the head.

We spent the night in Birmingham since the MRI was scheduled for 6:30am this morning. Early mornings are fun! So, McKenzie tolerated the lack of feeding much better than Molly would have and had no issues at all with the anesthesia or the MRI itself. We were done and released from the recovery room by 9:30 this morning. Then we went and waited to meet with Dr. Oakes. 

Dr. Oakes showed us the scans. The mass within her ventricle in the brain had gotten quite a bit larger since December. The mass is a fairly large cyst. The doctor is concerned because McKenzie's head circumference is crossing lines on the growth chart. Back in December, she was in the 25th percentile; today, she measured out in the 75th percentile. Not good since the brain is apparently getting bigger at a rate faster than her skull is growing. As a result, things are starting to get squished and pushed around.

So, our options were presented as either we have surgery or we don't. If we don't have surgery and just wait to do something until she's showing some sort of symptoms, we're playing with the danger of permanent brain damage being done. That probably wouldn't be a good thing.

The surgical option is something called a cyst fenestration. It's a endoscopic procedure where the doctor would cut a small hole, drill through the skull, and insert a tiny "telescope". Once inserted, the scope would be pushed down through the brain until they reach the ventricle where the cyst is. They would then punch a hole in the cyst and allow it to drain normally.

It's a fairly simple procedure (simple for brain surgery at least) that would only take 30 - 45 minutes. We'd spend a night in the hospital and then be able to go home the next day as long as there are no complications.

The doctor feels good about this procedure being effective. We are trying to avoid having a shunt installed simply because a shunt is something that will be there forever. The cyst fenestration is effective between 65 and 75% effective to where if we do it, there's a 65 - 75% chance that it will completely solve the problem and we'll never have to do anything else.

That might sound like a bad percentage but I'd rather have a second operation than a shunt replacement every 10 years. The doctor told us that the chances of "serious and permanent" damages as a result of the surgery are about 1 in 35. That's less than 3%.

So, that's the info. It isn't necessarily what we wanted to hear today but it is something we have to deal with. The doctor has told us that this isn't emergent but it is something that we need to handle in the next few weeks to a month. So, it looks like we'll be back in Birmingham before the end of April.

We have to call the doctor tomorrow to schedule the procedure. I'm sure we'll let everyone know what's going on when we know it. Brain surgery isn't something to be taken lightly but we're trying hard to push through it right now.

We'll post more details as we get them. We've got one of the best pediatric neurosurgeon's in the country working with us so we feel confident in our course of action. We ask for your prayers of support as we go through the next month or so...

Til later...