Tuesday, February 13, 2007

CT Scan Results

Well, it is late and today was a long, emotional day, so I'm going to make this one short (well, as short as this explanation can be).

Unfortunately, due to some cervical spine (neck) issues, they wanted more x-rays to make sure her spine was stable. They were concerned about the possibility of spinal cord damage and wanted a neurosurgeon to take a look before doing anything else. So, we had to stop the consultation because the only time they could work us in was right then.

But, what we did get out of it is that she is missing some bones in her jaw. We didn't get into details at this point, other than this finding certainly makes her jaw reconstruction more complicated. Something is wrong with one of her cheek bones, not sure what the deal is with that. And because of her cervical spine abnormalities, her muscle is abnormal, or tight on her right side. This makes her favor leaning and turning only to the right. We have no idea what this all means and what the repair, if any, is. And Dr. Magee said that this might explain her odd head shape. Still not sure what we have to do about that.

Luckily, after the scare of possible paralysis, the neurosurgeon said her cervical spine is stable and we can continue her physical therapy. And let me just tell you, when they said spinal cord damage, I freaked about putting her in the bumbo seat! But, he said that the bumbo seat is fine, so whew!

As far as her cervical spine abnormalities... I am in the process of learning to decipher the reports they gave us. One thing I can read clearly is that she only has 5 cervical vertebral bodies and there are supposed to be 7. That would explain her short neck I suppose. I really don't know what any of this means as far as "fixability". So, all of this is going to have to take a backseat for right now. This week I need to learn about a normal heart so I can try to understand Harlie's heart defects. Her heart cath is Monday. Well, that's it. Not what we wanted, but not surprised, either.

Take care and thanks for your support.
-Christy

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