Dec 17: Hello again Duke Childrens

So today, we had to take Travis for his appointment with the Neurosurgeon at Duke. He was at the Duke Raleigh campus today, so we got to check out a new facility, and have about a 45 minute shorter drive, which was nice! The doctor was VERY nice, we really liked him. Travis, wow, what can I say about Travis. He amazed me. He was just his cheerful, silly self. The nurse practitioner did a neurological exam first, and asked him a bunch of questions, and he was so grown up answering. He did the same thing with the doctor.

The nurse practitioner did get on his bad side (in a silly way) a little bit...she ( a Carolina graduate and Chapel Hill resident) told him this joke (after asking what basketball teams he liked, since he said he was playing basketball, and he answered UNCW and Duke), she said:
Question:What happens when people in Chapel Hill go to the bathroom?
Answer: They make Dookie's.

Oooooh that got the best of him!!! He couldn't stand it.

So on to the serious stuff. The short answer is: we have to wait/watch/and see. Don't you get tired of hearing me say that? I know I do!

The long version is this:

• Travis has a syrinx(cyst)IN his spinal cord.
• He was likely born with it.
• It is very very small.
• It is likely NOT the cause of his back pain, and we will be trying physical therapy to help with that.
• It is not a surgical issue at this time.
• He has to have a head/neck MRI, to see if there are any issues there (since he has bad headaches).
• The results of that MRI could change things.
• If that MRI is "clear" (no problems), then he will have a head to tail MRI of his spine done again in 6 months to see if the syrinx has grown. If it has...we go back to Duke. If it has not, he has another MRI in a year. If it is still the same size, another MRI in a year. If it has grown...back to Duke. See where this is going?
• The doctor said he may go his entire life, and it not change in size. If its going to change in size, we should know within a couple of years. Yes, I said years.
• Right now, they cannot do surgery on it. Surgery basically involves inserting a tube to drain the fluid out of the cyst. The tube is 5x larger than the diameter of the cyst right now. See the problem?
• The doctor told us how to look for warning signs that the syrinx has enlarged, and to contact them right away if we notice any of them.
• So...brain/neck MRI soon (not sure when yet), here locally.

So overall good news. Granted, the MRI he will be having soon, could change things, but we feel better overall, after talking to the doctor today (did I already mention how wonderful he was?). He printed out pictures of Travis' spine, and let him keep them. He has already said he wants to take them to school!

So there you have it. Our visit to Duke today, summarized as best I can!
After all that fun, we had to drive back home, pick Riley up from my dad, go home, cook dinner, eat dinner, rush to basketball practice, then Travis and I got hot chocolate and drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

Speaking of basketball...watching him at practice gives me the giggles. He is so wiggly all the time! See for yourself:

Ants in his pants from Lindsey Souza on Vimeo.

And here is the video of his concert last night. They were supposed to sing 3 songs (one is Chinese!), but ended up convincing the music teacher to let them sing a 4th song, that they had not practiced at all! They did a great job with all of them!

3rd grade concert from Lindsey Souza on Vimeo.

Oh and Riley began our day by slipping in our hallway and smacking his cheek on the floor. I just knew he was going to have a black eye from the way his face looked when we dropped him off to my dad this morning but he looks fine tonight! Guess he doesn't bruise as easily as his mommy does.