MRI Results

I hope I have the facts correct about our MRI results and can explain them well enough for everyone to understand. If I am wrong then I will correct it all after we talk to the neurosurgeon on Wednesday.

Okay, where to start? The results pretty much told us that she will have all the defects that come along with spina bifida. To the best of my knowledge her type of spina bifida is called myelomeningocele. We found out that the part of the spinal cord that is affected is the sacral region. This is good news because it is the lowest part of the spine which is your tailbone. The bad part is that Autumn's is open so there is no covering membrane and the nerves are exposed. I think that means she will have a hole in her back when she is born but will confirm that with the neurologist. This also means that there is a huge probablity that all of the nerves will be damaged and the lowest nerves in your back are the ones that control your bowel and bladder control. This is the one thing I was really hoping would not be affected but it looks as though there is a great possibility of damage there. I think though as far as being paralyzed then it will only affect from the knees down but those last 2 things will be discussed and explained more on Wednesday.

Okay, to the next part. The MRI also showed that her right foot is clubbed but we could not tell if the left one was clubbed or not because she moved through the whole MRI. I hope to post some of those pictures next week. So, she will have to have surgery on her feet at some point but not sure when......another question for the neurosurgeon.

She also has a blockage to the back of the brain where the spine and brain connect. It is called Chiari II Malformation. This is causing build up of the spinal fluid and resulting in hydrocepalus. So, we already know that she will have to have a shunt put in when she is born and has the spine surgery.

All of the prognosis on what damage there will be from the surgeries depends on the neurosurgeon. This is where we need the best to get the best results possible. Dr. Sklar will be her neurosurgeon and we were told by the MRI doctor that the Children's neurosurgeon team is the best. They are the same team that did the separation of the siamese Egyptian twins who were in the news. Dr. Sklar is the senior of the bunch and director. We found out though right before we left town that he is not in network with our insurance. We were going to pursue looking for another surgeon who was in our network but after finding out how much of Autumn's progress is depending on the surgery has made our mind up that we will be using Dr. Sklar. The bad news is that we do not have a maximum out of pocket for our insurance with non-network providers so we will be paying 50% of the surgery bill which will be our greatest bill. God loves to teach us how to rely on him for our needs. :)

We were already bless though this week with 2 of my cousins, my parents and in-laws giving us some cash to help with travel expenses. Thank you to these special people who are getting us to Dallas and back. You will never realize how much you are appreciated by us.

We are still praying that the damages will be minimal and that maybe after her first surgeries we can try to get her into Scottish Rite Hospital for the other surgeries she will need. Dr. Sklar is a consultant there so maybe he will get us in and then the bills will be covered. Well, we did get more answers today and hopefully all of our answers will be given on Wednesday. Thanks for the continued prayers--we are feeling them.