Even better, (thank you Betsy), Mousey has a friend he met in the hospital, affectionately named "Mousey backup" by Clay.
Fortunately Mousey arrived just in time to catch a plane to Maine, where we enjoyed a wonderful week on Sebago Lake. Clay was able to join the kids camp program each day, and also enjoy some of the night time activities as the resort assigned him his own camp counselor. We also enjoyed a short visit in Portland with my brother and his family. On Thursday JD and Clay went on a very early flight to Pittsburgh for the second round of vaccines. The doctor was pleased that Clay has remained "at baseline" since starting the trial. The next visit in early September will include another MRI. Because so few children are in this trial, we are not sure when we might see positive results. One boy who responded did so in 6 weeks; another took over 4 months. JD and I continued to talk to neurosurgeons this month, and we have a surgery date now scheduled for mid-October in NYC. We are hoping that we will not need to keep this appointment, but we feel that should his symptoms of the chiari malformation worsen it will be unavoidable. Now we are starting to think about school, and how Clay will manage navigating the building, taking the bus, and other things that rely on a good sense of balance and coordination that he doesn't have right now. As is typical, Clay does not seem to have given it a second thought, and is looking forward to meeting his new teacher and seeing some friends.
