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I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Spinal Surgery...

This seems to be the only thing that calms Carter down when he is in pain.


A few of these were taken before Carter had surgery. I thought they were too cute not to share!
Pick me up!

Carter's spinal surgery went well and he is recovering quickly. The doctor's found two myelocystoceles, a torqued and tethered spinal cord. Although the surgery was a success, Carter's spinal cord will have to be monitored as he grows for any further complications.
The myelocystoceles were spinal cord defects. They were protrusions from the cord that included cysts and fat. There were also nerves in the myelocystoceles that had to be carefully handled while removing the abnormalities. One of the myelos was considerably higher than expected causing Carter to have a large and long incision on his back. What we thought was a sac filled with leaking spinal fluid ended up being a myelocystocele. Once the higher myelocystocele was repaired the torqued cord pretty much fixed itself. The cord was also untethered in the process.

Carter has done great since the surgery. There have been moments of pain, as expected, but everyday is a little better than the day before. Pain management and comfort has been our biggest focus because he has been forced to lay on one side of his body only. Carter has moved his legs and feet some, but we know that the road ahead is still a long one. The doctors, nurses, and Meagan have been taking great care of Carter and he could not have a better group of people at his side.
We thank everyone for the support, concerns, kind words, and most of all your prayers. We know that without God and his people who will drop to their knees and call His name that we would have none of the blessings that we have. Continued showers of blessings rain on us through this wonderful gift of a son. All praise and glory to God for another answered prayer in this procedure.

Cry to Jesus...

    This has been a very busy week at the Cline house. Carter has been sick with another urinary infection. It has caused him a lot of pain and made him extremly irritable. We are praying this will subside soon. On top of Carter fighting illness he had a MRI on Wednesday. Carter had to be fully sedated for the MRI so he would stay still. It went really well. Carter had no problems with the sedation and praise God we got to go home the same day.
   Today we recieved the results. Carter has a cyst on the left side of his spinal cord that is completly surrounded by spinal fluid. He also has a sac under his spinal cavity that spinal fluid is leaking in to. The main concern is infection. If the cyst was to get infected the infection would quickly spread into Carters spinal cavity and could become fatal. With this being said Carter will be having surgery.
    The surgery is scheduled at Blair E. Batson on Wednesday, February 9th. Carter will be in the pediatric intensive care unit after surgery. His hospital stay should only be 3-4 days with a 4-6 week recovery at home.
    Please pray!! Pray for our mighty Gods hands to wrap around Carters small body and protect him. Pray for strength and healing for Carter to get through the surgery and for all of the nurses and Doctors involved in his surgery and recovery.