The Results

For over a month now we have been waiting for a phone call.  Actually, it’s a phone call we have been waiting for since we brought Christian home from the hospital.  Today I got that phone call.  It was Christian’s Neurologist, calling with the results of his MRI.

When Christian was in the NICU he had several head ultrasounds to determine if there was damage done during his birth.  The first ultrasound showed no bleeding which was really great news.  The second ultrasound showed a small cyst on one side of his brain, we were devastated, and then caught off guard when the third ultrasound came back normal.  No cyst at all.  Thinking we were out of the woods, we cautiously prepared to take our baby home.  However, before we left the hospital we got the results of the final ultrasound.  Christian did in fact have a cyst, on the other side of his brain than they at first thought, but it was there.  He was diagnosed with PVL, a condition usually associated with Cerebral Palsy. 

We were told that the size and location of this cyst would probably manifest as problems in his lower extremities, mainly his left foot.  Nick did exhaustive research online and it reassured us that the size of this cyst might not, in fact, result in the worst case scenario.  As Christian grew we slowly saw that his low tone extended far beyond his left foot.  He made progress, but it was slower than we expected, and after he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and a MRI was recommended, we eagerly awaited the results. 

It has been over a month since I took Christian to Albuquerque for the MRI.  We have tried to prepare ourselves for bad news, while at the same time, trying to stay positive and reminding ourselves that no matter what we learned, it wouldn’t change who Christian is.  Because we had so many different results in the NICU, we were expecting this result to be different as well.  Today our wait was finally over.

The neurologist told me that the MRI showed exactly the same thing that the last NICU ultrasound had.  There is a very small cyst on one side of Christian’s brain, and the rest is absolutely fine.  Actually, he used the word perfect.  He said that yes, Christian was making slow progress, but he was progressing, and that was what was important.  The final prognosis was, we should expect a positive outcome, and Christian would do great. 

We of course got no magic number of when to expect Christian to start walking or crawling.  But he will.  Someday, he will.  And that my friends, is beautiful news.