what are the odds

Life is a game of odds and nothing is guaranteed. Leicester City just won the English Premiere League for the first time at 5,000-1 odds. For those of you who don't speak soccer, that is the equivalent of a AAA baseball team coming up to the Major Leagues and winning the World Series. Those 5,000-1 odds are the same for finding Elvis alive. Shea's odds of being born with hydrocephalus were 1,000-1. His odds of being required to have surgery and getting his shunt put in place stack up even higher. Currently we are awaiting test results that will tell us if Shea was born with conditions that are in the 10,000-1 range. We were lucky enough to get pregnant and even more lucky to welcome Shea screaming and crying into the world just over 4 months ago. At the end of the day, Shea is 1 of 1 and Erin and I would not change a single thing about him. Whether it is 1,000-1, 5,000-1, or 10,000-1, we will play those odds everyday of the week. Needless to say, I think that Shea was born to be a Leicester City fan.

We reached our 4+ month milestone, mom is back at work, Oma and Grammy have taken over care Tuesday to Thursday (I've got weekends), and Shea simply keeps smiling. Right now we are being good parents and following our orders leading up to a busy June where we will be seeing roughly 4 specialists along with our pediatrician, Dr. Mody. We started with an in house appointment with the Regional Center who will be helping track Shea's development and making sure he is hitting his milestones. Second came Shea's 4 month check up which went to plan as he received the standard vaccinations. And finally as part of follow up testing from our initial meeting with the genetic specialist, Dr. Bocian, Shea has been to a series of eye specialists as of late. Despite tracking well in all of his appointments, we have learned that Shea is far sided in one eye and near sided in another eye which will leave him doing his best Buddy Holly impression with glasses soon to come. The tougher item that has come up is that Shea has been diagnosed with macular atrophy in the paramacular location of his right eye. With little answers coming from the first specialist on what this all really means, we are in the works in attempting to find a second opinion. As we have for so much of this process, we keep enjoying the joy that Shea continues to bring us everyday. And if his actions could speak, Shea would be telling us that everything is going to be all good.

It has been 2 months now since surgery and our stay at CHOC. Life has changed and a new normal has become routine. But the one consistency throughout the entire process has been the love and support of our family and friends. We will never be able to repay all of you for the little acts of kindness that have made our days a whole lot easier.

A sincere thank you.

Erin, Pieter, and Shea