Medical Roundup

Well the results of the sedated BAER, MRI and CT scan are in!

1. The BAER still shows that Marley has mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The good news is that there is some improvement in her left ear which I attribute to a more accurate test than the one she had done at 4 months of age. Most importantly, it shows that her hearing hasn't gotten worse.
2. MRI of her brain and spine normal. The delayed myelination that was present when she was a newborn is no longer there. She has normal myelination for her age. There is a small amount of fluid collection in her posterior fossa but it is not believed to be clinically significant. This is of course good news though does not explain why she continues to be developmentally delayed and why she becomes more and more delayed the older she gets.
3. CT of her inner ears and sinuses normal. So most likely the cause of her constant congestion is enlarged tonsils and adenoids.

Overall good news and it is such a relief to be done with those tests (at least for a year)!

I spoke with Marley's geneticist about her MRI and we discussed if the findings are consistent with a diagnosis of DOOR syndrome (her original diagnosis). Dr. Merritt didn't feel that it either excluded or supported a diagnosis of DOOR though the fact that her condition is not progressive may be the strongest evidence against DOOR. So if not DOOR, what? Well we reviewed that her karyotype is normal and that her microassay did not pick up any deletions, inversions, duplications or translocations. And while there are limits to each test, Dr. Merritt is pretty confident that Marley's condition is the result of one little mutation on one of the over 100,000 genes she has. Which one it is- well we may never know. So that is her prognosis in a nutshell- unknown.

I also met with Marley's Otolarynologist Dr. Sie about Marley's CT scan. We discussed if and when to have her tonsils and adenoids removed and decided that we would wait until I met with a Neurodevelopmentalist to discuss their recommendations based on the fact that she has so many medical conditions. I want to make sure before I submit her to more anesthesia and an indefinite hospital stay, that the procedure will actually improve her breathing, development and hopefully weight gain!

What else? Oh, we met with Marley's Orthopedist Dr. White who is recommending braces for her feet (her right foot turns out). Her left hip is still dysplastic so we can anticipate surgery when she is 3 years old to correct the anomaly. Her right leg is slightly longer than her left leg (well Dr. White says that her left leg is under developed) so eventually we may have to consider surgery to correct the discrepancy. But that won't happen until she is 9 or 10 and the discrepancy shouldn't interfere with her ability to walk.

On top of all that, Marley's Opthamologist Dr. Cadera has prescribed glasses for Marley to treat her astigmatism and strengthen the vision in her left eye. The patching is helping with her strabismus so we must keep doing that daily but the glasses will be utilized over the patch and worn as long as she can tolerate them which is probably not very long considering that she already tries to constantly pull off her hearing aids.

So there's the update. As soon as we get the the leg braces and glasses I will sure be sure to post a pic. I might even dress her in an ugly holiday sweater for good geek effect. My poor little baby will never forgive me for the humiliation!