Pictures!! :)

I know that everyone is interested in updates, but in the spirit of chronologicalness, I will start in the middle of last week. But, I will tell you up front that everything went well with Everett, and he is at home safely.

Last Wednesday, Dad and Frances came into town to watch Everett. They took him over to his Uncle Chris's house to have a fun day of playing.

They had a small ostomy issue, and supply problems (skin barriers + Texas heat = not a good idea), so they called Grandad Lynn to the rescue (have you noticed how Grandad Lynn just seems to be everywhere? :) ).

Of course, when we went to pick him up, Daddy noticed that Uncle Chris had Rock Band, so they just HAD to jam a bit. :)

Overall, I am told that fun times were had by all...now it is Uncle Chris's turn up at bat for the grandbaby factory. :)

On Thursday, Everett hung out with Mommy at work. He mostly slept a whole lot, and that was good because work can be kind of boring for little babies. :)

We went to preop on Friday in Fort Worth. Everyone was very nice and we left feeling like many of our questions were answered. When given a choice, Everett chose pineapple/coconut for his smell to fall asleep to. :) Sandy beaches here we come.

On Saturday, Everett went to Grandad Lynn's while Daddy went to work and Mommy went to Baptism Preparation Class. Meemaw came over to visit and everyone stayed nice and warm on that chilly, chilly day!

On Sunday, Mimi Candy came over to spend the night since we had to leave so early on Monday morning.

We left the house at 4am Monday morning so that we could get to the hospital in time for check-in. Mommy and Daddy and Mimi got to spend a couple of hours in the pre-surgery room with Everett before they took him to the back. Everett was in high spirits, and not at all upset that he had not eaten. The benefit of being at the hospital so early is that Everett did not have to skip any meals before surgery because his last meal of the evening is 8pm, and he doesn't usually eat again until 8am. I love that he is on a great schedule and sleeping through the night! :)

They took him back around 7:30am, and then the waiting began. Honestly, the time passed fairly quickly. They were really good about calling us every hour in the waiting room from the OR to update us on his progress. Around 12:30p, the neurosurgeon came out and talked to us about the surgery.

Everything went well. It turns out that Everett's cord was not tethered after all. What was perceived as "thickening" of the phylum was actually thickened arachnoid. The arachnoid is part of the sheath around the nerve endings. It was not compressing the nerves, but on the MRI it looked as if the phylum was thickened. The Dr. went through each individual nerve ending and found them all to be floppy. He is not sure what caused the thickening, but assures us that it is no longer an issue. Additionally, he tested all of Everett's muscles, and they all appear to be functioning normally in regards to nerve connectivity. This includes his sphincter muscle as well. So, all in all we have good news!

Waiting for Everett to get done with his MRI so that we could finally see him was EXCRUCIATINGLY long! But, the time finally came when our little man was wheeled out into his room on the pediatric floor.

He got a private room, and I was pretty jazzed about that because I had packed earplugs and everything in case we had a roommate. :)


Overall, Everett just slept a lot in the hospital. He certainly slept a lot more than Mommy did.

On Monday night, the IV in his arm failed, and we had to put another one in. The only good vein (as we have previously learned) was in his head, so they had to put his IV there. This time, they gave him a little protective cap that was just too cute. I have a picture of it on my cell phone, but I am having trouble getting everything on this computer to cooperate, so if you see me out and about and you really want to see it, just let me know. :)

All in all everything went well. Everett has been on Tylenol with codeine since Monday afternoon. It seems to be working fairly well. He still has little bouts where he could be in pain or just fussy, but they are few and far between. I tend to think they are more just plain old fussiness because he is still supposed to remain on his back as much as possible, and I think he finds that boring.

I am so glad that we got this done now. I cannot imagine trying to keep him down if he were even a couple of months older!

We have a follow up visit in a month where they will basically just check his incision to make sure that everything healed up well. The doctor expects no complications at all.

So, 2 down, 3 more to go. Tentatively, he will be getting his hernia surgery and his chordee repaired around Feb. 12 depending on the schedules of his general surgeon and urologist.

Sorry for the long update. I will try to update more as information becomes available.

xoxo
Margot