Appointment Today

We met with Dr. McDougall today, and it looks like they will be doing surgery on Luke in the next few weeks. He really feels like we should take care of it now. Basically what they will do is insert a catheter in a blood vessel in Luke's thigh area and run it to his brain, to the spot where the aneurysm is. He then inserts coils in the spot to sort of block it off. He said, depending on the size, he also may use a stint in the blood vessel. As with any surgery, there are risks, but the benefits outweigh the risks. It is a 4 hour procedure, with an overnight hospital stay if everything goes well, at St. Joe's this time. The thing with aneurysms is they are not common in children. Luke's is a traumatic aneurysm, something that happened as a result of his accident. I will post when I know more info on when the surgery will be.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Luke loved his pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and a little of my all time favorite, Mammaw's Coconut Cream Pie:) Luke story of the week is: when we sing, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," to him, he will point to all of the different parts in the song. He is also getting great at raising his hand and making his OK sign! Thanks for checking the updates, have a great week, and Believe!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34

This Thanksgiving we are SO very thankful for the many blessings we have this year. First and foremost is that Luke is alive and with us this year...and progressing! We are thankful that God blessed us with such a beautiful boy, that is tough and precious as they come. Watching him fight gives us the courage to move forward every day. His new thing this week is he is starting to lift up his head when laying on his belly. He is even putting his right arm down and pushing himself up. We are also so VERY thankful to all of you that continue to check these updates on our little guy and continue to pray without ceasing, you will never know how much it means to us! This week my dad went hunting in Kansas. Mike had gone last year to the same place and met 2 of the guys they were hunting with. Well, when these 2 guys (from Louisiana,) heard about what had happened with Luke, they left the place they were staying to go find the nearest church so they could pray for Luke. There are many other stories just like this we have been told...thank you so much! Speaking of praying, please especially pray for Luke on Monday morning. We have an appointment with Dr. McDougall, chief of endovascular neurosurgery at Barrow's, to talk about the aneurysm. Please pray for them to make the right decision regarding this. Finally, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! This Thanksgiving, it is my prayer that everyone reading this will thank God for everything you have in your life right now (even though it may not be everything you want:) We are proof of how your life can change in an instant. So...enjoy the your family and the turkey too...and have an extra piece of pumpkin pie for Luke...that is his favorite and even better if it has homeade whip cream on top. Believe!

Shunt Adjusted

Just a quick update...Luke's shunt was adjusted fine on Thursday. Here is a cute story about Luke. I was talking on the phone Thursday morning and said we had to get Luke's shunt adjusted. I look at Luke and he was touching his shunt. So, after I hung up I asked Luke, "Where is your shunt?" He reached up and touched it! We had never even taught him that. Anyway, we asked Dr. Manwaring's nurse, who did the adjustment, about the aneurysm. She said Dr. Manwaring is getting the images to the vascular doctor, but it is not serious, they should be getting back with us this next week. She said she wasn't even sure they would do anything about it yet. Another thing we asked her about is Luke's left eye. It has been fully dialted since Luke was hurt, in fact they call it a blown pupil. Well we have noticed two different times in the last week that it has constricted. We asked her about it; she said she has never heard of that happening before, especially after it being this long. She said it could only mean that the nerve was maybe just slow in waking up. I am telling you slowly but surely Luke is being healed. It starts small...but a pupil they said would never constrict has done just that. Believe! "There are only two ways to live your life, one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle." -Albert Einstein

Another Answer

OK...so not five minutes after I posted earlier Dr. Manwaring's office called and said Luke does have a small aneurysm. She has calls into 2 vascular doctors to try to get us an appointment with them. The good news is both are out of Barrow's. I asked her if anything could happen while we are waiting...she said no. Please pray this is correct...thanks for continuing to check these updates.

Frustrated...

Some days I get so very frustrated with the medical community...today is one of those days. Luke had his MRA test done last Friday. We STILL have not heard back from the doctor's office on the results. I called them yesterday and was told Dr. Manwaring would call us back...never did. This morning I called a few times no one answered. Then, his office called and said we have Luke scheduled at PCH on Thursday at 3:00. Trying not to lose my patience I ask the lady, "and what would this appointment be for?" She proceeds to tell me that they need to readjust the shunt because it went up!!! This is after they sent us home on Friday without readjusting because, "it never goes up after an MRA, it can only go down." I am so frustrated at all of the misinformation we are being given. Then to top it all off, I ask the lady if she has the results from Luke's test. She asks me, "what test?" Um....that would be the test that caused the shunt to be off that you are calling me about. Anyway she has no results...the doctor is supposed to call us. I only pray that in this case no news is good news. I also pray that nothing bad will happen as we wait for the shunt to be adjusted...basically there is more pressure on Luke's brain until they adjust it...she told me Thursday was the soonest we can get it...but I really want Dr. Manwaring to call so I know he is aware of this. All is not lost, right after this call I am shopping in Wal-mart, when I hear familiar music coming over the store speakers. It was Luke's song! They were playing, "Tunnel," a Christian song in Wal-Mart. Just a reminder to me...that there is a light at the end of this tunnel no matter how many confused people I have to deal with along the way...we WILL get there! Good news is...we heard back on the ultrasound on his foot, it is just fatty tissue, so not to worry about it. So, please continue to pray for the MRA....and patience as we wait, very frustrated, for answers...the light is coming though...Believe!

Tests

Just a quick update to let you know, Luke will have the MRA done Friday morning. He also has an ultrasound tomorrow on a bump he has on the bottom of his foot. They think it is just a cyst, but want to be sure. Please pray for positive results on both tests. Friday will be a long day. His test is at 10, but they can not be there to reprogram his shunt until 4. I will have to stay all day, then I am taking Lynsey to the Hannah Montana concert Friday night. I will update as soon as we hear results though. Thanks for the prayers...believe!

Dr. Visit Today

This morning we had our visit with Dr. Manwaring. He is Luke's neurosurgeon. The visit started off strange. His office had called Mike last week and told us not to schedule an MRA to check on the suspected aneurysm. Anyway, to make a long story short, Dr. Manwaring knew nothing about this until we mentioned it to him. So we (nor him) has any idea why we got that call. After looking at Luke's MRI, he ordered an MRA to be done this week (still not sure what day.) Please pray for positive results from that. Other than that, Dr. Manwaring said he was very encouraged by the progress we are seeing with Luke. He went over the MRI and showed us some of the damaged areas, but was way more positive than the visit we had with the neurologist last week. He says there is still some damage showing to the right thalamus area, which is why we are seeing little movement on the left side. He is going to lower the setting on Luke's shunt when they do the MRA, and said hopefully we will see some improvement after that. We didn't get to ask him a lot of questions, he had 2 emergency phone calls while we were there, so the visit was very rushed. He will see us again after the MRA is done to go over the results of that.

On another note, Luke's new trick of the week is he will now wave to people! Slowly but steadily he is coming around...Praise God for everything he is doing both in and thru our son! We are so very blessed! Believe!

Jack Sparrow!

Just wanted to post a picture of Lynsey and Luke on Halloween (see Luke's cute smile,) and Luke dressed as Jack Sparrow to go trick or treating with his cousins. He is enjoying the candy!

Another quick story and I hesitate to write this, because it has only happened once. Yesterday Luke was laying on his mat we have for him. I was sitting near him. All of the sudden I saw him roll from his back onto his right side. It is the most moving I have seen him do. The best thing is he brought his left side over. He has also raised up his left arm a few times the last few days. Please pray for it to continue.

As for our appointments on Monday and the MRA to see about the possible aneurysm, Dr. Manwaring's office called Mike and said he does not want to do the MRA. She did not say why, just that he would go over it with us at our appointment on Monday. Please pray for positive results at this visit. I truly trust Dr. Manwaring's opinion more than anyone else we have met on this journey. I was re-reading some of my earlier posts from March, and saw that he told us then it could be a year before we would know what Luke would really be able to do. Again, please pray for this visit to be positive....believe...the best is yet to come!