MRI results and next steps

steve and i had very mixed feelings about today's appointment. after jacob's last appointment we felt like we would be told one of 2 things today. 1. the MRI showed that there is a brain injury and jacob has cerebral palsy (which according to the neurologist at the last appointment that would be the BETTER option and the most likely option). or 2. the MRI showed nothing and we need to continue testing and look for a metabolic disease. we had been told that the next step would be a spinal tap.

both options sucked. we were of course wanting the MRI to show nothing AND for the doctor to say that he wasn't going to test jacob any more. however, this seemed like an unrealistic option since we had been told that he would NOT grow out of the symptoms he has.

in the past 3 months we have noticed that the shaking in jacob's arms has been less and less noticeable. in fact, in the past couple of weeks i have only seen his arms shake a few times. the shaking used to happen VERY often (probably at least 30x/day). the stiffness in his legs is still an issue. he does not bend his knees when standing (and he loves to stand). you can try and bounce him on a soft surface to get him to jump and his legs stay very stiff and he will not bend his knees. it's also difficult to get his knees to bend when changing his clothes and when he is very excited his whole body stiffens. the stiffness was the neurologist's main concern at the appointment in october.

today we saw the doctor again. he immediately said that he is SHOCKED that jacob already had his MRI. he told us that he expected it to take at least 1 year. he asked us some questions about jacob's development since his appointment in october. he then told us that the MRI was 100% normal and showed that jacob's brain is "perfect". amazing words to hear! (although at this point both steve and i were freaking out on the inside because we were expecting to hear that he has a metabolic disease.) he told us that jacob is only slightly behind on his development now and to him jacob doesn't feel as stiff as he did a few months ago. if he had a metabolic disease we shouldn't see a decrease in his symptoms. the next part was THE BEST! he said "i guess i was wrong. he will probably grow out of these symptoms." BEST WORDS WE COULD HAVE HEARD!!!!!! he was wrong. there is a third option and jacob is growing out of the stiffness. no cerebral palsy and most likely no metabolic disease. he told us that even though we don't know what is causing the stiffness he isn't worried about it after seeing jacob today. he does want to follow up with us and see jacob again when he is 18 months old or if we notice anything unusual with the stiffness or his development between now and then.