MRI update!

Carter did great with his MRI. He was sedated for about 3 1/2 hours, so he was a little grumpy and drowsy last night. He woke up this morning ready to go and worked really hard with his speech therapist. The University of Mississippi is going to send the results to Carter's Neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, so I do not plan on getting the results for a while. Thank you all so much for all of your prayers!



Carter's self portrait he took on my phone! Cheese!

MRI 12/18/12

Carter went back for his MRI about an hour ago. It should take about 3 hours, so right now I am playing the waiting game. They used a mask to put him to sleep and then they were going to put him under general anesthesia. He fought so hard! It took me the Anesthesiologist and a nurse to hold him down while they let him breathe through the mask. They said he set a record for the longest fight. Poor baby has been sedated too many times!

The MRI is to make sure his spinal cord has not re tethered and to make sure there are no other spinal defects that could be causing the unexplainable vomiting. They are going to send the images to his Neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, so I am not expecting results any time soon. We are praying everything is stable and we can completely focus on his "big" surgery in April. Thank y'all so much for all of your prayers for our sweet little gift! I will try to update later this afternoon.

Here are a few pictures from this morning...

Just an update...

I haven't updated in a while and I just wanted to catch up! Carter has been doing great. He did catch the flu and was down for about a week, but thankfully he bounced back pretty quick and is doing really well now!

I spoke with our child life specialist at Johns Hopkins yesterday. She is helping us get everything ready for Carter's big surgery in April. She submitted all of our information to the Children's House and Ronald McDonald house. These are both homes that we may be able to stay at while we are there. We are praying we will get into the Children's House. It is within walking distance of the hospital. The Ronald McDonald House is not within waking distance and we would have to take a shuttle back and forth. Hopefully the Children's House will work out. She also gave me a few more details about the surgery. She told me they will wait and put a PICC line in Carter until the day of surgery. She also said that I will be able to carry him back to the operating room and stay with him until he is fully asleep. I know that this is just a small thing, but knowing that Carter will be asleep for weeks it really warmed my heart!

I decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and Carter is in love! In love with the Christmas Tree! He is still not talking, but just by looking at him you can tell exactly what he wants to say. He grabs my hand and leads me to the tree about 50 times a day. We stand by the Christmas tree using our excited sign language and admire its beauty. Carter has even been nice enough to add a few of his own ornaments this year! I recently found a Woody figurine and train in the tree. They were probably the cutest ornaments on the tree.

We are really trying to enjoy Christmas and the time we have with Carter right now. Brandon and I both know that in 4 months we will be begging for this time back. In our own selfish ways we really don't want him to have the surgery or maybe it's that we don't want to have to watch the pain he is about to endure. We know it is necessary, but its hard to think about the little boy that holds our entire heart having to endure any pain. The only thing that brings us comfort is our Faith. Our Faith that has already brought us and especially this sweet boy through so much. Faith that will bring us through again and Faith that no matter the outcome God will be with us. To Him be the glory!!!


Carter with his "hospital" tree. That I got to put up in our dining room this year! Yay!!!



Examining his Bob and Larry Christmas lights!



Silly boy!

My very own Elf dancing in the yard!