Ari's MRI Results

We got the reults back on Ari's MRI (1/07/09), and I can't say that it's anything new. Dr. Kara Lewis (Ari's Peds Neurologist) told us that the MRI just showed that there is no active blood in the brain any longer. It is consistent with the previous MRI that she had when she was about two weeks old in that it showed scarring on the brain where the blood previously existed. She said that while the brain can't really be mapped, the areas of grey matter that were affected typically correspond to delays in motor development (particularly gross motor) and trouble with planning. She also said that because the scarring is so close to the grey matter of her brain, Ari will be suseptible to seizures. While all this comes as no surprise to us, and I usually try to live by the old adage "no news is good news", I can't say that I wasn't the teensiest bit bummed that there were no miraculous improvements -- I'm always holding out hope.

Hearing about Ari's brain "trauma" and "injury" always kind of make me re-regret my decision to have a natural delivery over a C-section with the twins. It just haunts me that my choice may have turned an otherwise healthy, normal baby girl into one with a lifetime of trials ahead of her. Many friends have been talking me out of these thoughts by kindly but firmly reminding me that 'everything happens for a reason', and that we may have dodged an even bigger bullet by choosing the path we did --( i.e. who knows if something worse could have happened to either of the twins or to me during a C-section?). I am grateful for these voices of reason. And seeing as though no one got me a time machine to go back two years for Christmas, I'm going to try my darndest to adopt this theory.