Abigail update

Hey everyone! Abigail is doing good & making progress with occupational & physical therapy. She is now 91/2 months old, weighs 101/2 lbs. & is 21 inches long. I haven't wrote about this in my blog, but when Abigail was 9 wks. old, she was diagnosed with achondroplasia dwarfism. It is not genetic, but was caused by a mutation in the gene fibroblast growth factor receptor type 3 or FGFR3, @ conception. Achondroplasia is the most common type of dwarfism, which happens in about 1 in every 40,000 births. It's the kind of dwarfism that Mom & Wife, Amy Rollof & their son Zach have on TLC's Little People Big World. Abigail recently had an MRI done to look for any abnormalities & they discovered that the base of her skull is compressing her spinal chord. We talked to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Grondin, who is going to do what is called base of skull surgery, in which they remove the portion of the skull that is compressing the spinal chord. Abigail's surgery is scheduled for Friday, February 13th. She will be in the hospital for 4-5 day after her surgery to recover. They may keep her on her oxygen a little longer now. We will let you know when she is off oxygen during the day. We are nervous for her to have surgery, but after her surgery I believe that she will be able to breathe even better & make more developmental progress. We will let you know how her surgery goes.
Michele & Kurt