Lucas and the fishes (Part 1 of 5)

Lucas loves hanging out with the fishes in his crib. If he's (mildly) grumpy, we can sit him down in his crib and turn on his mobile - and he starts smiling. Here are some pictures from this week

Lucas in September

An interesting turn of events

Last month we sent Lucas' MRI over to the Carter Centers, which are a group of hospitals that specialize in holoprosencephaly. Since the neuroradiologists at St Louis Children's hospital could not determine what type of holoprosencephaly Lucas has, we figured that the Carter Centers evaluation would help us know a bit more about Lucas' brain. The summary of their report was:

In reviewing your child’s MRI, we did not see any areas that are abnormally connected across the middle; therefore your child does not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of holoprosencephaly.

So Lucas doesn't have holoprosencephaly at all!

The report did mention other brain disorders, but it wasn't clear whether they were diagnoses or just possible diagnoses. So the next step would be to go to a neurologist who would be able to help us translate the report into English.

Regardless of what the doctors say, Lucas continues to be awesome. He is behind in his eye tracking and his head movement, but everything else seems to be great!

Some new pictures

Lucas - late summer

Lucas is doing great. Esther's a little concerned that some fluid has been building up along Lucas's shunt line, but hopefully it's nothing to be concerned with. If it continues to happen, then we'll have to bring him back to Dr Leonard.

Esther and Lucas went to the urologist last week, so that the doctor can plan for the hypospadias correction surgery. It will most likely be in November, and will be outpatient - so Lucas won't have to spend the night in the hospital. We found out that he'll need to have a catheter for about two weeks after the surgery, which doesn't sound like any fun - but they say that babies hardly notice it. Maybe not, but I'm sure I will...

Lucas is starting occupational therapy this week. The therapist will work with his head movement and his eye tracking, which is pretty much the same things that the physical therapist does. I'm still kind of confused about the difference between the two, but Lucas is in a state subsidized early intervention program called First Steps, so we pay the same amount no matter how much therapy he gets. And hopefully more therapy now will pay off big later.