Medical Update

A lot of people have been asking about Tabitha's medical issues and what we've found out. Well . . . in day to day life she's very healthy, and most people would have no clue she has any problems! But . . . she does have some pretty serious things that still need to be taken care of.

We finally got her Chinese surgery records and got them translated. You'd think they'd just automatically send those along with the child, but no--that would be too easy. Anyway, Tabitha's urologist (Dr. Gearhart at Johns Hopkins) said the information was very helpful. At least now we know what was done while she was still in China. To make a long story short, she was born with common cloaca (which means having only 1 tube and opening instead of the 3 a girl should have), and it was partially repaired in China. We think that her being unable to urinate was a result of the surgery, because there's nothing in her notes about it until after she had surgery. Dr. Gearhart said that they won't do any kind of bladder surgery to attempt continence until she's 5. So we're hoping and praying that it'll be fixable when she's 5. But at the same time, emotionally I'm going to plan on it being lifelong and just be very pleasantly surprised if it isn't.

The more immediate next steps are 3 surgeries. First of all, the rectum that the doctors in China formed for her is not positioned exactly right in relation to the muscles. So she'll need surgery to move it slightly. We also just saw a neuro surgeon (Dr. Ahn) and found out she'll need surgery for tethered spinal cord. Dr. Ahn explained that the spinal cord is supposed to be free within the spinal column, but on Tabitha there are some fibers holding it down. This isn't causing any problems yet, but as she grows bigger it would. He said this is not a risky surgery and not to worry. She will have to be in the hospital overnight, but after that there should be no further problems caused by it. We still need to see the hand surgeon to schedule surgery for removing the extra digit on her thumb.

So after 31 years of life never going to a hospital except to be born, to give birth to Jesse and to visit a couple people who had babies, this is sure a different experience for me! I think I've been to doctors' offices more in the past 4 months than in the entire rest of my life! Our immediate prayer is that we can get all the doctors coordinated for scheduling these surgeries, and possibly be able to do more than one at a time. Dr. Gearhart had said that may be possible, and we're hoping that it is--much less trauma and stress to do everything at once.

We are very thankful for the doctors we've met with so far. They've been great! And we're very happy that Tabitha is in good health besides these "little" major problems. =) We appreciate your prayer as we get all the surgeries scheduled. Pray for efficiency by the people in the scheduling office. (Her MRI took a couple months to schedule!) Pray for coordination of the doctors and that they might be able to combine surgeries. Pray for peace for Tabitha and all of us in handling all of this, and of course for safe and successful surgeries. I'll update again when we get things scheduled. Thanks!