The Second Visit

Pacific Sunset Outside the Golden Gate

Well Joshua's appointment went very well and we will be returning in January for another follow up visit. They will also be scheduling a full spine MRI and brain MRI, hopefully for the same day as his visit. We were very encouraged by our visit yesterday with Dr. Cordoro. She and her staff do an amazing job of helping us understand everything and putting us at ease.

Dr. Cordoro (left)
She thinks that he'll be a Navy Seal someday.

The MRI will be looking for a condition called Neurocutaneous Melanocytosis (NCM). This is where there are melanocytes (spots) somewhere in the central nervous system that can cause a variety of symptoms. Joshua's risk of having NCM is less than about 5% and his risk of having any symptoms if he does have NCM is about 40%. Dr. Cordoro says that he is kind of in a grey area as far as the risk of NCM goes but feels that an MRI in Joshua's case would probably be a good idea. This will give us peace of mind as parents and will give the Dr.'s a baseline to go off of in the future.

Golden Gate from the Presidio

We are totally trusting God that He has marked our Joshua in a special way for His glory. I am confident that he will remain healthy and strong and live a long fruitful life but even if he does face challenges in the future, God has a specific plan for his life.

Rachel and I are really enjoying being able to get away to the city about every three months too. Yesterday we went to Fisherman's Wharf for the obligatory clam chowder in a bread-bowl and drove by the Golden Gate on our way to look at the house where her dad grew up.

Even though we have Joshua with us,it feels like it's just the two of us and it gives us time to get to know each other as husband and wife and not just "mom and dad". We are looking forward to the next trip in January!

Pacific Sunset from the Presidio

Da Beard

Joshua has decided to go with the beard look. It's a little patchy but where it is coming in, it's filling in quite nicely. Having the hair grow up the side of his face might be an issue but it does give him kind of a Wolverine look though.

We have our next appointment scheduled for October 15th out at UCSF and are interested to see what they have to say about doing an MRI. He was born with 7 satellites on his legs, back, and head and we have now crossed the 20 satellite risk threshold with about 33 and counting. It does seem like he gets another one about every couple of days and it's possible that he could have hundreds of satellites in the next few months. 

At 3 months old, his personality is really starting to come out and he is really trying to catch up to our other kids. He loves his "bouncy seat" and is already pretty mobile, scootching across rooms at the speed of a fairly fast turtle. He is an amazing sleeper too. He goes down at about 6:00 or 7:00 and sleeps until about 6:00 or 7:00 with one or two feedings during the night. And he can sleep through anything! We can have all of our kids in our room, jumping on the bed, screaming and laughing, and he doesn't even hardly stir. 

It is so much fun to watch our children grow through the different stages. And to get to do it again for the ninth time is a huge blessing.