month one
Our baby is 3 1/2 months old and he has endured brain surgery, MRIs, multiple ultra sounds, drawn blood, genetic testing, countless appointments, and a tongue clipping. The hardest part of it all is knowing that this is just the beginning. Like mentioned in previous posts, this is simply our new normal. However like anything in life, it's so easy to allow challenges to distract what is right in front of us: life.... And life is good. Our little dude cannot stop smiling, laughing, eating, and growing. We were fortunate to spend some time in Newprot Beach staying right on the sand at 43rd Street. Shea did so well eating and sleeping I think he was trying to tell us oceanfront or bust!... We've got some work to do. At the end of the day, we get to be parents and fall head over heals over our child and we could not feel more lucky. Like I said, life is good.
Today marked our one month checkup with our neurosurgeon Dr Muhonen. Nothing you ever want in life unless you are an employee, but dang we know our way around those St Joes and CHOC parking lots... Our appointment begins with Shea simply laughing and smiling on the hospital bed for 15 minutes. Shea has given us no reason for concern leading into the appointment and our doctor confirms this speculation with an ultra sound. His ventricles and fluid levels are continuing to progress to appropriate levels. We get to leave the same way we arrived, smiling with our son.
It is Erin and I's belief that you should never build walls around life. Experiencing new people, places, and ways of life only helps us gain a more well rounded perspective of how we go about making decisions on a day to day level. One very tough topic discussed in our appointment was travel with Shea. Something that was brought up right away by our Doctor was shunt failure while traveling. Obviously not an ideal situation, but given Shea's unique condition we will need to always work into our plans a worst case scenario and how close we would be to reputable help. To put this into perspective one of the first places mentioned as not a great place to travel: Hawaii. Not everyone needs to be a world traveler. But to think that one day Shea could be restricted on what he gets to experience in life because of his condition is hard to swallow. Everyday we learn something new.
We have said this before, but Erin and I continue to be blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. And again I want to issue a sincere thank you to each and everyone of you. We could not do this without you.
Life. Is. Good.
The Berger Family