Hand, foot, and mouth...oh my.

It's been a busy few weeks.

January 22nd we met with the vascular anomalies clinic at Vandy for Elliot's yearly "team meeting." We decided to add in another laser treatment at his procedure later that week and the team suggested that while Elliot was under anesthesia that the ENT go ahead and clear out his ear canals since there was some wax build up.....January 24th was our procedure day. What was supposed to be just a routine MRI and airway scope turned into also getting the laser treatment, ear tubes placed, filler being added to a laryngeal cleft, and excision of a structure in his throat that were too tight and likely contributing to swallowing difficulties.

All the changes to his procedure made it where we had to stay overnight unexpectedly, and once we got home Elliot was positive for hand, foot, and mouth. This led to us missing a combined week of work/daycare.

Our spinal MRI showed that Elliot's tethered cord repair was successful, however, the repair did not result in his spinal syrinxes (fluid around his spinal cord) decreasing in size. Unfortunately, they are larger now and we will have to have another procedure. We have to be cleared by his ENT and then will be scheduling him for a posterior fossa decompression surgery to address his chiari malformation as a possible cause of the spinal syrinxes.

Jack and I have agreed that we won't be doing the surgery before his birthday. He should be cleared by the ENT a few weeks before he turns 2, but we want him to get to enjoy his day without any pain/discomfort.

Despite the chaos of the last couple weeks (6 appointments in less than a week) and being sick, Elliot is still a happy camper. He's also made progress with eating and is actually demanding purees now. It's slow moving but I feel like our feeding difficulties might have an end in sight.