A Sobering Visit

The last couple days we have spent quite a bit of time at the hospital for doctor appointments. Yesterday we had a follow-up visit for Max's motility issues. It started off with an x-ray which once again involved both Bas and I having to physically restrain Max. After the x-ray we saw the doc. The good news is that all Max's blood work came back normal and that there doesn't look to be any major medical issues with his intestines. The bad news is that almost all the 60 rings he swallowed are still in him. We'll be giving him extremely high doses of a medicine to "clean him out" and he once again has to swallow the rings everyone morning. We'll go back next week for a follow up x-ray and hopefully see not as many rings inside him.
I asked the doc if Max's prematurity had anything to do with these issues. This brought up the discussion of The Netherlands practice on saving micro preemies like Max was. The good news is that in the past 3 years since Max was born, Holland has changed it's views and now has certain criteria for saving babies from 24 weeks on instead of the earlier 26 weeks.
This was when the sobering part of the visit occurred. I asked the doc if this means that Max would be saved if he was born in Holland now. The doc said that because Max's Apgar was 2 when he was born, he wouldn't have met the criteria to be saved.
Needless to say, I couldn't give Max enough kisses yesterday. I was so clearly reminded what a miracle he is. Not only is he doing better than we ever had hoped, but he is speaking 2 languages, riding his bike faster than Bas and I can keep up with and not to forget, giving the best hugs we can imagine. We are so thankful....to put it mildly.

Today we had Max's eye appointment. For those of you who don't remember, Max had laser surgery on his eyes when he was 4 months old to save him from the possibility of going blind. Because of this, for the rest of his life, Max is at high risk for retinal detachment. He goes every 6 months to be monitored and have his vision checked. We had great news today. His retina looks healthy and his vision seems to be IMPROVING. So no glasses for now! Yeah!