>> The MRI went fine today (now yesterday). Little Lalo took a joy ride to the basement for the MRI, played nice with the anesthesiologists, and came back to his cozy (temporary) home in the PICU. The images were as they suspected from the CT scans - there is a significant amount of brain damage. It is a hard thing to quantify though becuase of his age. If this happened to an 18 year old, it would be devastating. However, the newborn brain is very plastic - meaning it has the ability to adapt. An infant has not yet assigned particular parts of the brain to particular functions, so as he develops, a baby could reassign those functions to the healthy parts of their brain. However, that is not a certainty and there is really no way to predict. We will just have to watch how Lalo develops over the next few years and pray for a good outcome. We do know that extensive physical therapy and regular neurologist visits are a part of our not so distant future.
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>> We also got the news that there is talk of doing Lalo's hernia repair surgery towards the end of this week. This is exciting because it really is the next step in moving forward, but at the same time terrifying because it is a huge hurdle to get over. We were warned today that he is going to get a lot sicker after the operation, it will most likely be a few scary days immediately following. And still, there is no way to know if his lungs will be able to function appropriately after the repair. The hope though is that within a couple of weeks, we would be able to wean him off the ventilator. Only then, many days after he was born, would we get to hold little Lo. The surgery fellow also told us that it takes some babies 3 or 4 weeks before they are ready for feeding (via feeding tube). The bowels go into shock from being handled during surgery (because they have to be moved from his chest to his abdomen). In addition, his brain injury will likely slow his surgical recovery.
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>> Pray that little Lalo has a restful week so he can get nice and strong for his surgery and also that he can get more fluid off.
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4 comments:
We're sending you our best thoughts for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery. Little Lalo is a champ--we're all cheering for him!
Our prayers and hopes are with you, Sarah, Lalo, Caleb, and Little Lalo. We've spent some weeks in a PICU; may your outcome be as happy as ours was, and may you bring your baby home soon. Tricia and Chuck Brauner
Still praying and praying and thinking of Lalito every single day! We love you little guy. Berna
I am hoping and praying for a quiet week for little Lalito.
Aunt Kirsten
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