Developmental Checkup

First of all I guess I forgot to mention that we will be heading to the Kennedy Krieger Institute the 1st week of August. We have appointments Monday and Tuesday...one with Neurology and one with the Director of the Neurodevelopmental Clinic, Dr. Hoon. We are extremely excited/nervous!!!

Dr. Senn is really happy we're going to Baltimore! He has heard Dr. Hoon lecture several times and said he's excellent and we're fortunate to be seeing him. (He isn't familiar with the other doctor we are seeing.) We asked about anything to prepare for the visit, i.e. a follow up MRI, he laughed and said, "DON'T do it here, let them do it there, they're the specialists and he'll do a very specified one". He's sending Chase for a second swallow study next Tuesday to recheck for aspirations and he sent him for hip x-rays yesterday. I took him to the peds office twice in a mini panic because his legs were VERY different in lengths. By the time we got there they were fine and the doctor said if there was a dislocation he'd be in pain. Well Dr. Senn pulled on them yesterday and could make them each miraculously grow an inch and a half without trying. They both look to be dislocated, he said it's just something to watch for now if there's no pain. We have the films, of the hips and of January's MRI, to take to Baltimore...

If the swallow study doesn't show aspirations we'll keep doing what we are to try to get some pounds on Chase. He's up to 20 pounds 8 ounces after going down to 20 pounds while having mono. That's skinny on a 34 inch body! If the test shows aspirations we'll be back in the direction of a feeding tube. They were happy to see the weight recovery after the mono so fast. I think that bought us some time to try ourselves again.

Developmentally he's very happy with Chase's progress. Chase put on a nice show, tried to sit up, laughed and babbled and showed his stubborn side, lol.

He does has one new trick. His favorite new game is "Monster". He gets in your face and makes a quiet noise which very quickly gets REALLY loud until you jump and tell him how scary he is!!! He LOVES it! I have to get it on video.

On to our big announcement. We've canceled the home lift modification. The van modification is on hold. The state is moving slowly on them because of problems with the bid process right now, we have our paperwork in and are just waiting...since the lift won't help without the van, we began to rethink our plan...

We are on a one year savings plan, with assistance from the DDSO and the County...and M&T :o) ...our plan is to buy a house by June 2010. A ranch...open floor plan, in Clarence (the best Special Ed. program around, excellent for High School for Alex as well). Plenty of room for Chase to scoot, wheel or even run, depending on whatever may happen in his future.

Remember Bernadette? Chase's coordinator that we love so much we adopted as our friend? She's also a Real Estate Agent! Is that convenient or what?

Well that's enough for now. Next Friday we see the new Neurologist that we adore...we'll definitely update again then!

Til Then! XOXO