Good Day

Joey had a good day yesterday. His muscle biopsy went well, the surgeon said that his muscles were underdeveloped, but we expected that since he's not moving much, but they got the sample they needed, so that's good news. Joey did not get cold again like he did last time he went downstairs for a procedure, so that's good news as well. Joey had an eye exam yesterday for retinopathy of prematurity. The blood vessels of the eye (for the retina) don't fully develop until term birth, so premature babies can sometimes have difficulty getting those vessels the rest of the way developed correctly. So far, Joey is fine, the vessels are forming normally, but they are still immature, so he'll be retested in a couple of weeks. Joey had his physical therapy eval yesterday as well. The therapist (actually taught a few of my grad school classes) said that he had really low muscle tone (we knew that), but she did say that he was responding correctly mentally, so it's important that anyone who comes to visit his be sure to talk to him like you would any other baby. She said that when a baby isn't moving like he should, people tend to think the mind isn't moving either, but she said that Joey is "in there" so be sure to talk to him. I've started reading The Hobbit to him, so I'm talking to him a bunch now too. Also, Joey does not have RSV (nasty respiratory infection) and at the time he doesn't have pneumonia or anything else, but they're trying to grow something in a dish to see if he's coming down with something or if he just had a ton of snot the last few days. Joey was really awake yesterday when I was there in the afternoon. He wasn't doing any new movements, but the ones he has been doing, he was doing a whole bunch yesterday, so that was encouraging to me. Oh, I almost forgot, when the eye doctor was doing his exam, he had to hold Joey's eyes open and have a pretty good light on them, so I checked the color of Joey's eyes and right now, they're gray. I don't know if they started blue and they're working their way darker to brown, or if they started gray or what they're doing, but right now, they're gray. Thanks again for all the prayers and love that everyone has shown us and especially Joey. I keep reminding myself that we keep getting lots of good news and that Joey is improving, but it's just not as fast as I'd like, so thanks so much for the prayers and PLEASE keep praying for Joey.