A quick update following Cara's neurologist visit on Tuesday (10/7/08).
We met with Dr. Maddox to review the radiologist's finding from the MRI. Initially, the MRI was ordered to check for any abnormalities which could explain Cara's speech delay as well as to check for any fibromas which would indicated neurofibromatosis. The report was very positive! The radiologist found no lesions, tumors or blockages in Cara's brain. He reported that her ventricles had decreased in size though the left was still a bit larger than the right, showing that she does, indeed, have hydrocephalus. There was some scar tissue around her shunt, but that was to be expected. The only "helpful" thing that we discovered from the report was that Cara has a very thin corpus callosum, the large bundle of nerves (essentially) that separate the two hemispheres of the brain. The corpus callosum allows both sides to communicate with each other and the thicker it is, the better the communication due to the more nerves that exist. If it is thinner than normal, there is a potential for communciation between the left & right sides of the brain to be slowed. This could(there is no way to be 100% certain) explain Cara's speech delay.
So, while we breathed a big sigh of relief after hearing the mostly positive report, we are still left to wonder what is truly causing Cara's lack of speech and also, if she does indeed have neurofibromatosis. For now, we will continue with her speech therapy and also stick with our appointment to see a genetic counseling team in December. It will be their job to decide where we go from here.
3 comments:
The radiologist report was helpful and hopeful I see - no tumors, lesions, or blockages were found - that must be a good sign for hopeful progress as things go...keeping you all in mind as the other app'tments come up.
Love to Cara and family.
Glad the report has found no lesions, tumors etc.
Violet has a thinned Corpus Callosum aswell.
Bring on Decemeber and your geneticists appt!
Laura,
I'm glad that while the report gave you no certain answers that it also didn't show anything frightening, either.
We're already half way through October. December will be here soon.
Here's to hoping that either the coming tests will show something (hopefully something not scary) or that one of the specialists will be hit with a stroke of inspiration that will help you out.
I remember when I had my septic hip that the pain was radiating down to just above my knee and at first nobody could figure it out because they were looking at my knee. (Which makes sense.) Eventually, one of the orthpaedists was like, "I want to try something. It's possible that the pain is radiating from your hip." Da ding da din da ding.
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