Murmur

So, night #1 went well last night. Meaning, that Fin is acting like a regular newborn. He was awake almost all night. I enjoyed it actually so I could talk and sing with him. Today we saw Dr Pelinka to discuss a 2nd opinion up in Portland. She said she respected our ideas about that and would speak to the pediatric neurologist up in Portland about this case and send him all of Fin's studies. She did tell me some reassuring things:

1. While she was in residency, they were always taught that if a baby was started on seizure medication in the NICU, then they were always put on seizure meds for 4-6mo. Also because of the fact that Fin's EEG showed that he had major seizures for 24hrs, then she agreed with the fact of him being on Pheno for 6mo.
2. She would discuss at least cutting his Pheno down.
3. Although he's sleepy, she thinks that he seems pretty coherent. She thinks he's adjusted well to the Pheno already.
4. She feels that even if there is some abnormalities in Fin's brain/MRI, they will heal themselves and he'll overcome this.

I forgot to tell everyone that they isolated the bug in Griffin. The cultures grew Parainfluenza Type 2. Although this is basically the common cold, they have no idea why this caused the encephalitis that brought along the seizures. It could have been another virus involved too - or could be a weird immune response -meaning his body overreacted to a simple virus (which could be scary for later).

Nathan's cultures haven't grown anything yet, or at least we haven't heard. I suspect it would prove to be much of the same as Griffin's illness. One thing's for sure ... this was a weird, weird virus. It's amazing to think of how many different doctors are involved, as Dr Goins has also sent Fin's MRI down to University of Cailifornia (@ San Diego).

One thing that did happen today, was that Dr Pelinka found a murmur in Fin's heart she hadn't heard before. She said that she wasn't worried about it, and would normally wait and just assess it again in 1mo, but based off his recent illness she wants an echocardiogram to look at the murmur better. She said his heart is changing so much it's not uncommon to all of a sudden have a murmur with all the changes. That will happen sometime next week.

And now I'm celebrating NOTHING going on tomorrow. Mase will go to school like normal but otherwise, I'm excited that I get to pick him up from school ... something I haven't done in over a month.