Britton had another wonderful check up with his neurologist last month. We have known that Britton is doing great, but it is always nice to get confirmation from an expert. To be honest, we always love taking him in to see this doc, so that he can see how unbelievably awesome Britton is doing!
He was glad to see Britton walking around like a pro, talking, following directions, making eye contact and playing games with him, and even figuring out how to unsnap the doc's Blackberry from his belt clip. Britton even climbed into a cabinet, shut the door on himself and played peek-a-boo with the doctor. He is a funny kid. The doc's response was ... "well, autism is definitely out of the question."
We (again) discussed Britton's smaller head size, as this has been one of our nagging concerns since he was born. Britton is a smaller guy -- all of his measurements are typically under the 25%, but his head is a little off-the-charts small. He doesn't look like he has a small head as he is quite proportional, but he does. Thankfully, Britton is following the growth curve, but is just making his own curve. I finally asked the big question ... "is Britton's small head size related to his birth?" The doctor said he felt sure that if Britton had a smaller head size because of his birth injury then he would have obvious and significant developmental delays. Since Britton is doing so well developmentally, the doc's best guess is that Britton's head size is familial. That makes a lot of sense as Danny has a smaller head size (we wear the same hat size). We were relieved to hear him finally say this, and I am hoping we can put the head size question to rest from now on!
We also talked about doing another MRI. Britton had 3 MRIs while he was still in the NICU, but hasn't had one since. We have always leaned toward not doing another one as Britton would have to be anesthesized for it and, frankly, there is no medical reason for him to have another MRI (again, Britton is doing great with no developmental deficits). It would be more "intellectual curiosity" as the doc says. In other words, it's not very often that a newborn goes through what Britton did (9+ minutes of no heartbeat/no blood circulation/no oxygen to the brain) and come out with a normal, well-functioning, undamaged brain. I can understand that he really wants to see what Britton's brain looks like 18 months past all the trauma, but not sure it is worth even the little risk that anesthesia poses. Our doc did say that he thought another MRI would show Britton's brain to be normal and well developed. That best guess will probably be good enough for us.
We will see the neurologist again after Britton turns two so he can see how Britton is doing on speech and language acquisition, and then we will probably just see him every year around Britton's birthday.
Danny and I had quite the reality check when we were in the waiting room with a number of severely brain-injured kids. As Britton ran around, laughing and playing on the jungle gym in the waiting room, other precious children were in wheelchairs, incommunicable and immobile. We realized, maybe for the first time, what exactly we were so close to, and it brought us to tears. We trust that had God chosen us to walk the difficult path of caring for a brain-injured child, He would have certainly given us grace to do so. But we are just so unbelievably grateful that God had a different plan for Britton.
And on that note, my precious, wet but clean, towel-wrapped little boy is coming in fresh off a bath to give me a goodnight kiss. Wouldn't trade these moments for anything ...
