Andrew had his follow-up last Friday with his neurosurgeon. He said the syrinx (pocket of fluid) in his spine is nothing to "worry" about but we want to watch it closely. It grew 3cm over 1 year, making it 5cm now. They would like to leave it be, just watching unless it causes him problems. It it unrelated to anything else, they do not know the cause of his syrinx. We need to watch for symptoms..... if his ability to walk/balance declines, if he is more irritable (pain related), changes in urinary/bowel function. These can be signs of the syrinx getting larger. He got a "baseline" back x-ray to monitor his scoliosis. This can be caused by the stroke damage (weakness to the left side) or from the syrinx. Andrew will follow-up with neurosurgery in ~6months or sooner if needed, he will have another MRI then and x-ray of the back. His brain scan was unchanged, so he may start getting the MRI/MRA of the brain every couple years to monitor for any potential changes/problems.

He saw his rehab PA/MD also. He will get multiple botox injections to his left arm next month sometime. They will call us when it is scheduled in the Childrens surgery center. He will need to be sedated. The doctor said he would like to take this opportunity to do the injections and not miss out on a critical time for Andrew learning to use the arm. He may get more weakness and that is the risk. But hopefully it will help him to gain more control of the arm and it will be less likely to tighten up and relax back to a "stroke-lie" position I guess you would say.  So sometime next month he will get the injections.

Other than that, we got a trampoline the boys can both enjoy with a nice enclosure to keep them safe on it. This will help Andrew with balance and leg strength for example. We encourage him to try and jump. It is a lot of fun :)