Good News and Questionable News

I realized I forgot to include a few updates in yesterday's post. First, I forgot to mention that as of last week Mady is now doing the motions along with us to the wheels on the bus (round and round and up and down)!! I was very excited for one of them to finally accomplish this!

Second, the good news is that Annabel saw her neurosurgeon on Friday for a follow-up. Dr. Maher is very happy with how well the shunt is working and that we made it thru the 3 month higher risk infection period with no issues! However, he's still not thrilled with where the shunt ended up, it's actually a touch further in the ventricle than he'd like it to be but the philisophy is you don't mess with a functioning shunt so no reason to do anything at this time. It doesn't hurt anything being where it is but could cause the shunt to fail sooner, only time will tell. So please pray for Annabel that this shunt lasts for a very long time, years and years compared to the last one.

Finally (and this is the questionable news), we learned the results of Johnathan's genetic testing today. The test was sent out to and analyzed at Harvard. Apparently they found a strand that they've never seen before (I have the #'s and need to research more) so they want to do more follow-up, at this time they are not sure if it could mean a thing regarding this hearing loss or not. So, next week Wednesday Annabel, Mady, and I will be poked and bloodwork sent to Harvard to be analyzed - it will take 4-6 weeks for the results. If there is a gene it would have come thru the mother's side. The thought is that if mine and the girl's bloodwork shows the same gene then it wouldn't be likely to have affected his hearing, however, if we don't have it then it may be but they're still not sure what that could mean. So please pray for Johnathan and our family also that this "finding" isn't anything significant. Obviously we would want to know if it could affect Johnathan in any way (such as worsening hearing loss, affecting other parts of the body, etc.) or the girls or even their future children.

Next Wednesday is also the kid's follow-up neonatal clinic. This is the fun one where they tell us how behind (especially in Annabel's case) they are. It is frustrating because we know and see everyday how far they've come and how much they're still progressing. We are taking a different approach this time, my parents are going to meet us at the U and walk the other two around while one is being tested so hopefully they'll do better individually. Wish us luck!