Weilong's Birthday

Weilong officially grew 5 3/4 inches in the last year. I'm sure you can tell from the pictures I posted this month that I'm having trouble keeping him in clothes that fit. The pants I bought him in October are too short, but who cares? He's growing! The other day he tipped the scales at 50 lbs for the first time. He's so excited to be out of the 40's. The doctor said he's gained nearly 10 lbs this year, but he's still painfully thin. He had lost down into the 30's in March/April when he had the last surgery, so 50 lbs is really good!! Way to GROW, Weilong!

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Eve

12/20/08

Way too cold to enjoy the live manger scene. But the open fire and smores were a big hit.

Julia's Birthday

Prairie Lights

Hannah's Birthday

Growing

Zack

Little Zack has had a rough time lately. Two weeks ago he had surgery for pyloric stenosis. He seemed to do well for a while, then started vomiting again, so he spent another night in his favorite hotel (hospital).

He's been home since Sat evening and is doing much better now. He weighs 10.2 lbs which I think is 10 lbs 3 oz. That's up from 9.2 before the surgery.

I'm posting several pictures so ya'll can see how handsome he is. He has laughed out loud several times and is going to be a happy baby. I can just tell by the huge smiles he gives me.

Weilong is liking school. He's getting into little "fights" on the playground. I'm gritting my teeth and letting him take care of himself. He's capable of doing that unless several boys get on him. Can someone please tell my why little boys like to fight?? Please. I'm resigned to it I guess. Maybe Weilong is just a big talker and they don't know yet how kind and gentle he is. It is always the new boys who pick on him for a while, or boys that don't know him. He really gets along well with everyone in his class and is loved by everyone at school.

I'm trying to work with the boys to help them get up to speed on reading. Weifu's teacher is tutoring him two mornings a week before school. He can read well, but is having a hard time drawing the correct conclusions. Very hard for him to read between the lines and know how a character feels, or why the character acted as he did. Is this because of his time in the orphanage or because of his lack of reading comprehension. He easily remembers all the facts of a story, just doesn't understand why people acted as they did in them. Weilong doesn't have this problem. He understands the actions of people very well. But he has a hard time reading. I think because he had two brain surgeries last year and missed so much school. I'm working with him in the evenings.

One more thing

When I had Weilong at the Dr's office yesterday afternoon they said he is now 47 inches tall and weighs 46.8 lbs!! He's growing and I love it. Still very thin, but he now weighs more than he did pre-surgery. He eats well and is active.

Newest MRI Images

Weilong had his 6 month follow up MRI and visit with the surgeon. The Syrinx is still there, but has shrunk a little bit. The surgeon was a bit disappointed. He says there is some malformation at the front of the spinal column that is probably causing csf flow restriction and suggested that we might want to think about surgery. I'm afraid I just said "NO".

Weilong is doing fine, his headaches have all but disappeared, and we will not put him through another surgery at this time. Only if he starts having serious neurological symptoms or they tell us the condition is life threatening. I believe that they nasty old syrinx will shrink even more over the next few months. Remember how much swelling Weilong had in his little brain for such a long time? Well, I think that slowed down the shrinking, but now that he is so much better it will shrink like it's supposed to and even disappear.

Here are a couple of pictures from the MRI series. The syrinx did extend down to T1 before surgery, but now it ends around C4 I think. Oh, how I wish I had some kind of medical training.

Latest Medical Update

Great News! I finally took WL to the opthalmologist yesterday. I had been urged to do this by a couple of his other doctors. They were concerned that there was pressure on his optic nerve. But thank God this is not the case. The opthal. said that Weilong has 20/20 vision and the pressure is 100 percent normal. I think I actually laughed laughed with relief in his office. Weilong and I were giving each other the high 5 and saying "Thank you God", the doctor must have thought we were completely insane. Oh, how good it was to get a good report like that.

Then we went to see the endocrinologist and things are going well there also. Weilong is 46 inches tall now. The dr said he has grown 4 inches since we began growth hormone therapy on 12/7. And he weighs exactly 45 lbs. He looks very thin though. But he eats well and is healthy so we're not to worry about that. For now his dose of Genetropin remains unchanged. I am praying for another inch in growth by the year mark which will make 5 inches in one year. Weilong asked the dr if he could have two shots a day so he'd grow faster, but was denied. He said the kids at school are commenting because he is the smallest in his class. I'm afraid this is something he'll just have to deal with for now. I pray that he catch up with the others someday, but if he's always on the small side it's ok. His wonderful personalty goes a long way in winning friends for him. He loves life and loves people and it shows.

A very wonderful friend of mine (well of the whole family) is re-doing my floors. We have had an exciting week pulling up all the carpet. Now we are on bare concrete and almost all the furniture is in storage. She has started putting the base coat of skimstone on the floors. It's very exciting. And the sample part looks so wonderful. It will be so much easier to keep clean than carpet. And so much better on Julia's allergies and asthma. I can't wail til it's finished. I'll post pictures.

Weilong loves his teacher. He looks forward to school every day and is doing well. He is starting to enjoy reading. He wants to be a teacher when he grows up. He says his dad in China was a teacher.

Weilong has an MRI scheduled for the 23rd of the month. I am now looking forward to another good report. His headaches are so much less frequent. Maybe once a week now. I'm so thankful.

Weilong talks about the circus

Weilong talks about the tooth fairy

Pictures

Look at how much Weilong is growing. He is getting so tall. He eats well, but is still so thin. I think his weight cannot keep up with his growth in height. He weighs 44.6 this morning.

But his headaches continue to get fewer and farther apart and we're all so thankful for that. He is active and seems healthy and of course he's always happy. We are doing physical therapy at home every day, and have cut back to once a month at the therapist's office. Everyone gets in on helping him stretch those tight tendons.

Summer is almost over and we haven't visited Nana yet. I'm afraid I will have to put it off til later. I'm so busy and it's so hot. The kids are not happy about it, but I just can't squeeze a trip in before school starts.