Strong Boy

Strong Boy. Our hero is our unborn son Garrett Maxwell. As you know Garrett has Spina Bifida, and he will require neurosurgery to fix the opening in his back within 24-48 hours after birth. We are expecting our little miracle mid to late May.

When we first found out about this on December 22nd, Lori and I were devestated. As you can imagine, Christmas was very tough. Needless to say the month of January was the hardest month of our life. To be honest the only things that kept us going was our faith in God, Avery, and of course Garrett.

The month of February started out tough as well. We had an MRI done on Garrett on February the 3rd. When nobody called us to discuss the result of the MRI, Lori and I decided to become Radiologist and interpret the results ourselves. Bad idea.... Lori got the results for herself and we interpreted them that weekend. Let's just say that me trying to interpret those results would be the same as me trying to do the surgery to repair my son. In other words like I said, BAD IDEA.

On February 9th, we met with Garrett's neurosurgeon, Dr. Dauser. His first words to us were this really isn't that bad. In my head 2 things happened at this time. 1 was great excitement, but the other one was if this guy is messing with me I will get arrested. Not something I needed to do. The good news was the Doctor meant it when he said this really isn't too bad. Garrett's opening is different when compared to practically all kids that have Spina Bifida. Garrett's opening is flat. Most kids have a buldging sac, but his is flat and small. The Doctor said that he could close his opening in about 1 hour when these surgeries typically take 4-6 hours. Also, he said all of his organs look normal, and their is no fluid on his brain. He also said that no further damage "should" happen to him. Should meaning that further damage could happen, but it would be unlikely. Like everyone says, we won't really know anything until he is born and can be properly assessed.

On February 17th, we went to Dr. Rowe. He was the Doctor that told us about the Spina Bifida. Our appointment was scheduled for 9:30, but we didn't get called in until 10:30. This was a blessing in disguise though. If you have to wait an hour of longer you get a free DVD. Results from this ultrasound continued to show all organs functioning normal, and a real exciting thing was Garrett was kicking the crap out of Lori. It also appeared that he was doing a leg press off her uterus, and to do leg press properly you have to have strength in your quads and hammys. Needless to say, we have watched this DVD about 20+ times. As you can imagine, this has been the most trying time of our life. Fortunately we have had a lot of good signs, so we are "Cautiously Optimistic".

Our next Doctor appointment is with Dr. Carpenter, March 15th. He will be the Doctor that delivers Garrett. We haven't met him yet, but he has come highly recommended by all of Lori's other doctors. Garrett will be in the best possible hands possibly in America with Doctor Carpenter and Dr. Dauser. Special thanks to Lori's boss Jackie for getting us in contact with Dr. Dauser and thank you to Dr. Rowe for getting us in contact with Dr. Carpenter.

We have had overwhelming support from family and friends, and we are truly grateful for the thousands of people that have been praying for Garrett. Please keep praying for Garrett, we truly believe that God is listening. We can't wait to share our little miracle with the world.