Parker Update - October 2008

[NewTurtleMom]

UPDATE - Oct 3rd - We are back from North Carolina. Parker was not at all troubled about flying. I wish I could say the same for her mother. ;-) I was pretty nervous and stared at her the entire flight. I wanted to make sure she wasn't affected by the pressure. She slept most of the time. Also, while we were gone she seemed to eat more from the bottle. The docs at Duke joked that she likes North Carolina and she should stay there. We arrived on Sunday after getting up at 2:30am for the trip. Needless to say Sunday was a hectic day. On Monday we took Parker to Duke University Hospital for an exam. A Nurse Practicioner checked her out and we were done within an hour. We walked around the Duke campus (my hubby had to check out the basketball court - "the mecca" as he calls it). It was just beautiful. Parker's procedure was on Tuesday. The cord blood infusion only took about 15 minutes total. They put an IV in her arm and infused the blood. They kept her for four hours thereafter to make sure everything was okay as there was a possibility of an allergic reaction to the preservatives. She had no reaction and the procedure was relatively easy. We left on Wednesday morning. We will never know if the cord blood will repair some of Parker's brain damage, but we had to do everything we could to help our little one.

UPDATE - Oct 12th - Things are pretty quiet around here. I guess that is a blessing. Parker is my little piggy. She weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz last Monday. She gained almost a pound in two weeks! We took her feeding tube out shortly after we returned from North Carolina and haven't looked back. She tells us every three hours that it is time to eat and does so with vigor. Our Pediatrician says that except for Parker's head circumference she acts/looks like a perfectly normal baby. We have our next Neurosurgeon appointment in November. I'm curious to see if her brain has expanded since her shunt surgery and cord blood infusion. I read this bizarre article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocephalus under the heading Exceptional Case) about a 44 yr old French man whose brain was almost totally compressed by fluid. He led a pretty normal life and was totally unaware of the problem. Makes you wonder how many other people are walking around with this same condition and don't even know it.

On another note, my Grandmother (GiGi to Parker) has finally come clean about her condition. She has said that she is ready to go and is at peace with the diagnosis. She feels fortunate that she was able to meet Parker as many of her friends didn't live long enough to enjoy their great-grandchildren. She is a remarkable woman. Parker's middle name is Elizabeth for may Grandmother. We named her well before I knew her prognosis. I feel that these two are connected and are strong women. It makes me ill to think that my grandmother won't be around long enough to see Parker blossom, but I am glad they were able to meet.