Micah's a Puzzle

Medical Update

We're still at the hospital. No timeline for coming home (because that's the second question everyone always asks - first question is, "how is Micah"). 

Yesterday the nurse noticed that Micah was twitching his arms and legs in unison for 6-10 seconds. There is concern that this could be behavior indicative of a seizure so they've attached an EEG to his head to record his brain activity until tomorrow morning. I pray that it was just normal neuro development movements... 

Here's a picture of his little head wrap, he's so cute!

Micah continues to baffle the doctors. This morning we had a family meeting with the ICU attending and fellow, the neurologist, and the cardiologist.

Micah had an MRI on Friday, June 27. The neurologist said his MRI results didn't indicate any major problems and that the abnormalities she found are common for cardiac babies:

1. There are tiny dots present on the left side of his brain. They could either be blood clots or the result of low blood pressure not sending enough blood/oxygen to those parts of the brain. The dots are so tiny (and common) that they don't present any serious concerns. The doctor did mention that Micah could have slower use of the right side of his body... But maybe not.

2. His brain is measuring slightly smaller than an average size brain at his age. Also common and not a concern.

3. The pons, a portion of his brain stem that serves as the "message station", is measuring slightly smaller, but it could be that it's proportionally small to the overall smallness of his brain. They'll monitor it.

His breathing vent has been adjusted to provide even more support... Finally the ICU doctors admitted today that Micah has been on the vent for about a week or two longer than they like to see. So they've been planning next steps to figure out why.

First, they're going to put a scope down his windpipe to see if it has any weak spots. If results are normal then they're going to wait a few weeks and perform another cath to identify and measure the pathways of the blood flow in his heart. They have to wait a few weeks because his heart is still too fresh from surgery to insert a stent if needed. If his cath results are normal then they might consider steroids.

The good news is that he doesn't have any more tubes or wires protruding from his chest, his stitches from surgery have been removed, and he isn't on any medication to help the function of his heart :) 

We just have to figure out the breathing and oxygen saturation issues.