We all made it safe and sound to Arizona on Sunday and had a good meeting with the neurosurgeons yesterday afternoon. Finn’s surgery has been scheduled for 8:30AM on Wednesday morning. First, he will be put under general anesthesia with a small IV in his arm. Jens and I plan to smile a lot and sing his favorite songs to him as he nods off to dreamland. Then they will insert a larger IV near his neck once he is asleep.
Next, they will do another MRI and run some other tests. The surgery will immediately follow. It will take a minimum of 4 to 6 hours, and can run as long as 10 hours. He will most likely still be intubated (meaning he’ll have a breathing tube in this throat) after the surgery and for at least the next 24 hours. He will then have a second MRI done on Thursday to be certain the entire cavernous malformation has been removed. Finn will remain sedated during the duration of this time, so we won’t be able to hold or nurse him. This will be a challenging time to be sure, but we know this surgery is a necessary step in helping Finn to live a long and healthy life.
Overall, we remain very excited and optimistic! Finn is in great spirits and so are we. We are looking forward to an incredibly successful surgery and the healing that will follow. Your prayers and positive energy remain an important part of this journey. Please keep them coming!
At nine months old, Finn can’t do many of the things that other babes his age can, but there is still A LOT he can do. In fact, he has made some excellent progress over the past few months in all areas of development. These are just some of his many accomplishments:
Finn is very social! He loves to smile and laugh, especially at his older sister. He says “ba,” “ga,” and recently he has even started saying “ma . . .ma . . .ma.” He also really lights up when we sing songs and nursery rhymes to him.
Finn is able to pass toys from one hand to the other. He can hold on to a small hard ball and items of different shapes. He enjoys banging and shaking toys, and like any typical baby his age, he experiments by putting everything he gets a hold of right into his mouth.
One of the most exciting things that Finn has accomplished in the last two months is learning to roll! For about a month and a half he rolled just from his belly to his back, but over the past several weeks he has learned to roll from his back to his belly as well. Now, he is getting around all over the place. We just love watching our little roly-poly guy make his way across the room!
