March 11, 2008 - Nathan's MRI

Ben - Mar 11, 2008 5 ½ months old
Nathan's MRI went well. It was a full-day experience with us leaving around 8:30am and getting home around 5:00pm. They ended up putting him out with general anesthesia, with a breathing tube down his throat.

It took a little while for him to get his breathing back under control (high enough SAT scores--basically getting enough oxygen and having a strong, regular heartbeat) but he eventually got that under control. He is a little more squeeky right now, with a hoarse cough (sore from the breathing tube), but that should get better as his throat heals itself over the next couple days.

As far as the results of the MRI go, we have no idea. They couldn't tell us anything. We expect a call from our doctor today to tell us what they found. We will keep you posted.

Tara - Mar 12, 2008 5 ½ months old
Nathan went under general anesthesia which means that he had the mask and tube down his throat. They thought that it was safer for him that way based on his tracheomalacia or laryngomalacia, and evaluation. It was good to see how he reacted to the anesthesia since he will have it again in a week and a half.

Today we got the results back. They didn't find anything wrong with his spine, temporal bones (all inner ear structures are normal), pituitary gland and hypothalamus. They did find that the optic nerves are small and that he has immature myelin. So what does that mean? An excellent question. : )

From what I understand, the myelin helps speed up the transmission of the electro-chemical impulses that are necessary for every movement, or lack of, in the human body. Right now he has the myelin of a 3-4 month old instead of a 5 1/2 month old. Hopefully, he will continue to be just two months behind. This concurs with his overall development which is about 2-2 1/2 months behind.

Small optic nerves means that he has fewer connections from his eyes to his brain. The more connections you have the better the vision. He is going to see an ophthalmologist on Tuesday to start to figure out what is going on with his eyes. : ) He will also get to see a Vision Therapist through Kids Who Count. She will help figure out what he is seeing and show us exercises that will help him focus and use his eyes better.

Update: Nathan’s ophthalmologist disagreed and thought that his optic nerves looked about the right size. Dilating Nathan’s eyes and using those interesting prism things showed that Nathan is a bit far-sighted. His eyes also tend to drift outward a little which is opposite of what Rachel had with her crossed eyes. The ophthalmologist was very positive in his diagnosis that Nathan would be able to see just fine.