Kijabe Roadtrip

On Tuesday we loaded up Joel, Lillian and Sherry and made the five hour drive down to Kijabe Hospital where they specialize in helping children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. We woke up early on Wednesday and waited for our turn to see the doctors.

 

Joel was the first to be seen by the doctor. Joel has microcephally which means that his head is very small compared to other children his age and his brain is also underdeveloped. Because his brain in underdeveloped there is an excess of Cerebral Spinal Fluid which could just have filled the spaces that didn’t develop or could be a bigger problem. The doctor said that for now there is nothing to worry about and ordered another CT scan that we will do in September before taking him back  to see if anything on the scans has changed.

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Sherry was the next one to see the doctor. They looked at her back and said that their biggest worry would be if she had a tethered spinal cord that could bring more problems as she gets older. We were able to get her an MRI done that confirmed that her spinal cord is not tethered and will take her back on June 22nd for the doctors to take a look at the scans and tell us what the next step is. Since Sherry is so new to the house it was great to spend a some time getting to know her better. She is such an energetic and sassy little girl that kept us entertained on the long drive.

Sherry was so excited to show off her new dress.

Lillian was the last to be seen by the doctors.She was born with Schizencephally, which means that she had a stroke in the womb that effected her brain development. This also caused her to develop Hydrocephalus because there was excess fluid that was filling the spaces where her brain didn’t develop. She also is blind and has epilepsy because of her underlying neurological issues.  We brought her to the clinic after we noticed that her right hand had stopped working and now just hangs at her side. She is also irritable, cries way more than usual, and hasn’t had much of an appetite. The doctors originally thought that her shunt wasn’t working but the neurosurgeon compared her old scans with the new ones and said that the position of the shunt hasn’t changed and that it looks like it is working as it should. So they sent us to get an MRI of her spine and the results say that she has a mass in her spinal cord that is causing the additional complications.  We will go back to Kijabe on the 22nd so that the doctors can take a look at the scans and come up with a treatment plan.

 

Please keep Lillian, Joel and Sherry in your prayers. Please pray that the doctors can help with a treatment plan for Lillian and that her pain is eased during this rough season.

 

 

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