It's been a few months since the last post, but Carter had his one-year followup appointment with Dr. Flake today. Aside from extreme frustration with the Radiology staff and their complete disregard for their patients' scheduled appointments, it was a good day. Carter was not allowed to eat or drink milk after 3am, so his last bottle was at 8pm last night. He sipped some apple juice around 6am, but that was the last nourishment he had until after his appointment. He was a trooper. He only lost it around 10:45am when he was tired, starving, and they were putting in an IV without any oral sedation (due to the messed up schedule).

Waking up from the IV sedation after the MRI was a little tricky, but we all managed. Dr. Flake saw Carter and looked at his MRI scans. He thinks the lymphangioma has recurred slightly. He expects that he'll need to do surgery at some point, but it may not be for another few years. Carter will return to CHOP in a year to have another MRI and visit with Dr. Flake.

2009 Geesaman Newsletter

Carter had his second followup appointment today, and it was a great one. The two questionable areas that Dr. Flake wanted to check on were looking much better. The entire surgery area is very firm to the touch, but he said that is normal scarring, and it will get softer over time. It will, however, always be firmer than the rest of his abdomen since they basically took out everything between the skin and the muscle there. So since Carter will most likely have the Geesaman genes when it comes to stomach shape, at least there's a chance he'll have a 3-pack!

There is some wrinkling around the scar, some of which Dr. Flake expects to flatten out over time, but he believes there's a good chance Carter will need to have some scar revision surgery in a year or two to help it look as normal as possible. So barring any significant changes, we will be seeing Dr. Flake again in TEN MONTHS! That was much better news than the 3 weeks we heard last visit.

Carter went to visit Dr. Flake yesterday. Dr. Flake said the area looked better than he expected it would at this point. There are a few areas where fluid is starting to collect, but he seemed to indicate that the chances the body might just start absorbing the fluid were about as good as the chances that he will need to drain it. We'll go back to see him again in 3 weeks. So we may continue to visit Philly on a regular basis for awhile. All the questionable areas of skin are healing on their own, so he shouldn't need any additional surgery for that.

We continue to adjust to having two boys. Ryker loves his baby brother and has not seemed to have any trouble adjusting. Stacy and I are having more trouble adjusting to the lack of sleep. We know it will get better...but it would be great if it got better soon.

The rest of Lora Carr's fantastic photos of Carter from the NICU:
http://loracarr.com/darkroom/share/?n=0907geesaman

If you are wondering why the posts suddenly stopped, you obviously never had, or forgot what it's like to have, a newborn in the house. So tired.

Carter went to see the family doctor on Thursday and was given a clean bill of health. He continues to do well at home...if we could only get him to sleep at night. Saturday night we moved his swing into his room, and he spent most of the night in it. It actually worked pretty well. So Carter may spend a lot of time in the swing at night.

Ryker seems to be getting used to having a baby in the house. He'll "hold" baby Carter for about 15 seconds at a shot now.

Stacy is doing well. She's finding the hardest thing is remembering not to pick up Ryker.

We're home...all 5 of us...Stacy, Ryker, Carter, Tucker, and I. Now the fun of our "new normal" begins.

We'll probably keep updating this for a week or two. At least until Carter's follow-up visit with Dr. Flake in two weeks.

Bilirubin is down. Drain is out. We're just headed back to check-out of the Ronald McDonald house and then we should be on our way.

All signs point to heading home this afternoon. We are waiting on his drain to be pulled, which has been ordered by Dr. Flake. We are also waiting on his bilirubin results, but we are hoping that even if they are high, they can just send us home with a bili blanket.