Off the beaten path...

I often try to keep my posts more inspiration centered rather than personal, but we've had a busy week so I wanted to share a little more than normal, in the way of a celebration.

I know that in the past I've talked about some of the challenges that Adam faced as a newborn/baby with his health.  We were super lucky to have a beautiful boy 2 months early; he was born with an array of health concerns... so many that we had to focus on the BIG challenges one at a time.  Once Adam started breathing normally (he would stop breathing up to 24 times a night and during naps), he was 18 months and wee celebrated taking him off the apnea monitor and bradicardiogram machine.  We didn't forget about his other health issues, but over time, they seemed further and further away from our daily life.




Adam Brody, 6 days old


About 10 days ago we saw Adam's primary physician who is fantastic.  He is thorough, caring, compassionate and I NEVER feel like he's watching the clock and cutting corners while he's taking care of Adam.  And now I have to backtrack a little... when Adam was born, one of his health concerns was a tumor on his brain.  His wonderful doctors at Kaiser monitored it closely, we had numerous ultrasounds and, when appropriate, a sedated MRI.  The last MRI that we had didn't show any changes with the tumor, so Kaiser helped us to breathe a sigh of relief and, while we knew that we'd have to monitor it, it didn't seem so scary any longer.

At the afore mentioned appointment, Adam's doctor was concerned with Adam's tumor.  We were immediately referred to a Neuro Surgeon at Loma Linda and for another sedated MRI.  Now, it's not that I'd forgotten about the tumor, but I'd become complacent with Adam's health.  He's an amazing, energetic, high octane and overall healthy (especially from where we started off) little 3 year old boy.  He's fantastic, if not a little challenging.  I was completely floored when the doctor said neuro surgeon - I held it together (barely) while he was talking to me about the referrals and then I was scared.  Very scared.
We got into see the Neuro Doctor on Monday of this week.  He explained some of the abnormalities of Adam's brain but was not impressed by anything he saw - which is a great thing!  And basically he reassured us that Adam's okay, his brain formation, while not normal, is not a problem until it's a problem.  Which means, that until we see specific symptoms, we go about our business, like celebrating what a special, healthy and tough little guy we have.

Business as usual is on the menu for the Jessup house.

I love this picture.  He popped up in front of the picture and then popped back down.

I'll be back tomorrow with my traditional post that is all about inspiration.
Andrea