CHASE'S PAGE

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Happy Almost Spring!

I should have updated sooner, but there isn't a whole lot of news. The most recent excitement was a few Friday mornings ago. I went to get Chase up in the morning, opened his jammies to undo his feeding "button" and the "balloon" that holds the button in his stomach was in his jammies. Uh-oh. We immediately called Children's on-call surgeon. We have been told to get this back in ASAP because these holes can close up in as little as an hour. Soon we will be taught how to put them in ourselves, but we hadn't been yet. Over the phone the Dr. was trying to get us to gently force it back in. There was no way. We took him right to the ER.

The ER Dr. figures it must have come out early in the evening, 8 or 9 hours before. It took hours to open it up. Tylenol with codeine, lydocaine shots (at mom and dad's insistence, he was screaming!), and they were using these horrible medieval dilation tools on his poor belly...we were so relieved when they finally got it. He slept the rest of the day and through the night.

On to the fun stuff. His walking is going GREAT! He tries to push Sarah away. He really wants to do everything on his own. Maybe some day!

He started aquatic therapy last month. Thanks to Alex it's going fantastic! The first week he was miserable. Then we started making Alex get in with him and the physical therapist and it's been wonderful.

Colleen, Chase's PT during swim Therapy

Oh, Chase had his annual low vision evaluation last week...AMAZING...remember when we were told he would most like be completely blind? He tested at 20/80 and continues to IMPROVE!!!

Yeah, he's pretty cool, lol.

All other therapies are the same, progressing great...getting ready for a "bit" of preschool in the Fall (I'm NOT ready at all for this, but everyone keeps telling me HE is).

I will do my best to not go so long between updates...

Take care, God Bless, Happy Spring is Almost Here!

Love~Heather

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Chase's walking, improving by "leaps and bounds"!

Just press play! :o)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

G-tube surgery & Van Updates!

I can't believe we're coming to the end of January, but I am so glad to have the first part over. Chase had his feeding tube placed at Children's in Buffalo on Monday, January 4th. The surgery went perfect. He was admitted through Thursday, Dave and I stayed the whole time while Alex stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Handy, lucky boy!

We brought Chase home Thursday afternoon and were met by a nurse from the Visiting Nurses Association. They delivered boxes of supplies including a pump for continuous overnight feeds, and Chase's very own IV pole, maybe we can put racing stripes on it! He'll get formula through the tube constantly overnight, then eat normally during the day, gradually increasing his daytime food, while weaning him off the g-tube. (Hopefully in a year or two we can have it closed up with a stitch).

He had a few minor issues the weekend following surgery, a touch of stomach virus followed by an obstructed bowel, but both were minor. He's doing fantastic!

The nurse now comes to the house once a week. Last week, 1 week after surgery, he'd gained 1 pound 5 ounces. I was SHOCKED. I knew it happened fast (and I know we adults can gain way faster than that, lol) but it took him all of 2009 to gain ONE pound!

Our other news...we have the van back!!! The modifications are fantastic! It's all electronic and amazing! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU again to everyone who helped!