Welcome to Elijahland

Dr. Gloom wasn’t quite as gloomy today, but it wasn’t all sunshine and roses like I had hoped. When we got to the appointment, he said, “Obviously he’s made some improvements since I saw him last.” Have you heard a bigger understatement? He also said that the things we were reporting were good signs (that he tracks objects, smiles, etc.). Elijah wouldn’t perform for Dr. Gloom, though. Elijah had just woken up from a nap (we woke him up, poor guy) and so he wasn’t quite himself. He wouldn’t track for the man and wouldn’t really do much of anything. I told Elijah later when I was changing him in the restroom that it was okay he wouldn’t look at the doc, since I don’t really want to look at him either!
So, what about the gloom? Well, the doctor thinks that Elijah’s head sutures might be fusing together early. That would obviously be a bad thing since his brain wouldn’t have any room to grow. Dr. Gloom also measured Elijah’s head and it seems to have grown since our last appointment with the pediatrician. (These measurements all seem so subjective since whoever does it seems to get a different result.) He put his head in the 50th percentile, which is much better than the 5th percentile that we thought he was at. To me, if his head has grown, wouldn’t that mean that his head hasn’t fused early? But, alas, I don’t really know anything about these things and I guess we’ll find out more tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be yet another appointment for our sweet little boy. He’s going to have a CT scan to check if his head is fusing early. We’re nervous about this since he has to stay still for five minutes to get the scan performed. It sounds like if he stays still enough he won’t have to be sedated. I will do anything to make sure he isn’t sedated; I can’t stand the thought of seeing his immobile again! Please pray that he will sleep through it so that we don’t have to do anything.
Next week we have an appointment with a neurosurgeon. He will take a look at the CT scan results and determine if Elijah will need surgery. Of course, we all hope that this is not the case. But, if it is needed to help him grow, then we’ll have to do it.
The other thing the doc was concerned about was that he thought Elijah’s tone was a bit on the tight side. Our tone is controlled by our brain, so of course that is a concern since a tight tone can be a sign of cerebral palsy. I don’t think that there is much we can do about it, other than what we’re doing with Early Intervention…and of course prayers.
Who knew parenthood would be so hard? I certainly had no idea. Andy and I are handling this quite well, but it’s still so hard. We realize that we’ve got God on our side and we’re taking life one day at a time. If Elijah needs surgery, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, what can we do but focus on the little miracle we have in front of us and put it in God’s hands?
Tonight we could really use the prayers. Please pray that the scan will show that his head isn’t fusing early, that his tone is normal, and that he will be still for the test tomorrow. We really appreciate your continued prayers. We know God listens – we have proof in our arms!

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