Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement this week. We are back in New Haven after our appointment with Silas's neurosurgeon at Children's Hospital Boston, and Silas is doing great. His doctor gave us the best possible news -- Silas is in excellent health and there is no need to be concerned with the ventricle and head growth we saw last week.
A head ultrasound yesterday morning confirmed that the swelling had stabilized and even gone down slightly since his ultrasound the week before. Although his ventricles are slightly larger than when we left the hospital last month, the ratio of his ventricles to the rest of his growing brain is essentially the same. As he is growing bigger, his brain is growing, and some increase in ventricle size is to be expected. The swelling we saw is normal and not a cause for concern.
Although his head circumference increased slightly ahead of the expected curve over the last couple of weeks, it is well within the normal averages and nothing to be worried about. The ultrasound yesterday showed that his brain is healthy and normal.
We will have our regularly-scheduled, appointment in Boston next Wednesday, and Silas's doctors will examine him again then. For now, it looks like everything is normal, and we will be cleared to head back to California on Dec. 19. If all goes well, we will have regular check-ups with our doctors in California and will only need to return to Boston for a follow-up appointment when Silas is six months old.
We were so happy that Aunt Rachel was in town this week and accompanied us up to our appointment in Boston. She was a huge help around the house and a life-saver on the car ride up to Boston keeping Silas entertained when we got stuck in traffic. She brought some great baby gear that we needed, so Silas is grateful to his cousins for sharing their stuff. We're sorry Aunt Rachel is gone (and especially sorry she had to leave in the middle of the snow storm this morning). Silas misses her already.
P.S. Thanks for being patient for this post. Matt gave his final presentation today for his post-doctoral fellowship at Yale, so it has been busy since our return from Boston. (Co-editor's note: The presentation went well and the presenter was very handsome! Baby Silas listened to the whole thing.)
