Nine weeks, one day

Yesterday I had the first doctors visit to check on the new babies growth. I have been a little nervous about this visit because this pregnancy has been so different from my last. I have been constantly nauseous and sick at least once a day. I’m more tired then I can remember being with when I was pregnant with the Kiddo and I’m growing a lot quicker.

Of course I expected the quicker growth, I’ve read that second pregnancies do that. Still it HAS been seven years so I thought maybe I’d catch a break… the growing plus the sick made me worry that there might possibly be two kiddo’s in there.

The doc checked me out and said everything looked great but when she couldn’t hear a heartbeat with the Doppler she went ahead and ordered an ultra sound just to make sure things were okay and to confirm how far along I am.

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The little one measures at nine weeks and has a pretty quick steady heartbeat of 171 beats per minute. I should be due sometime around August 13th (a Monday), that puts me about two and a half months after my sister has her baby girl!!

Anyway for now I’m looking forward to eventually not feeling sick and hoping that maybe the high heartbeat and extra morning sickness mean this ones a girl (two wives tales but still…). Next appointment is the start of February, I’m pretty sure I wont get an ultra sound with that one but I write up a blog anyway to let you know how things are progressing.

Brain Scan #2 (mine)

Several posts ago I shared the results of the Kiddos quantitative eeg. I thought it was an extremely interesting process and was fascinated by the results. Most insurance doesn’t cover the testing or the analysis so we were lucky to get it done and being able to ‘see’ how his brain is working still seems like a rather special treat.

So because our insurance does cover the scan and because most people that know me would tell you that the Kiddo gets his ADHD from me I thought about having it done myself… The thing is I am functional; I use alarms, calendars, notes and lists and I get everything done that needs doing. Very rarely does anything big fall through cracks. This being the case most people would question going through the diagnosis process. I have one brother who is as fascinated by the idea as I am, I have another that pretty much told me I was an idiot for being willing to let that ‘condition’ be officially diagnosed and put on my record.

Personally I do not see ADHD as a negative thing I believe that if it can be controlled then it can actually be beneficial. Being able to think and do multiple things at once means that you respond better under pressure. Crisis situations are easier to deal with because if one part of your brain locks down the other parts still work to solve the problem. If you can control the negatives (prioritizing and distractibility) then you can actually be a higher functioning individual then those without AHDH. It is all in how you view it, use it, and control it!

So I had my brain scanned. The QEEG itself was an interesting process, as I mentioned with the Kiddo they place a cap with electrodes onto your head. The electrodes measure your brain waves, you can see them jump when you blink or move. Once I was hooked up I had sit still with my eyes closed for 10 minutes (the tech ended up having to put cotton balls over my eyes to help them stay still). Once that was done I was supposed to sit as quietly as I could with my eyes OPEN for ten minutes (with as little blinking as possible). Having my eyes open was the hardest part but somehow I made it through.

Once the test was done I was sent home, I didn’t receive the analysis for two weeks. I wondered if my form of ADHD was the same as the Kiddos. I wondered if I even had ADHD, I mean I was fairly certain I did but what if I didn’t? Finally two weeks passed and it was time for the results…

The doc discussed the difference between beta waves, and theta waves; if I remember correctly theta waves are the ones that indicate daydreaming or random thought (v.s. focused thought). He pulled out a graph and showed it to me. It shows the ratio levels between theta and beta waves. There’s a dotted line there in the middle that indicates what the normal ratio would be, slightly above that line is another solid line which is where they “begin diagnosis of ADHD”, generally plus or minus a bit.

Then he went all the way to the top of the paper and wrote a number (circled here in yellow). I’ll admit I started laughing, no WAY doc!! He grinned at my reaction, yep my theta wave measurements were so high I’m not even on the chart. He told me that the level really doesn’t matter, it’s somewhat like being pregnant you either are or you aren’t… still I can’t help but chuckle, I mean good gosh off the chart?? yeesh!!

The most interesting part of the whole process was finding out that I am polar opposite from the Kiddo. He has a type of ADHD that only 5% of cases have (overactive brain). I have the type that 90% of cases have. Basically while he is sitting there trying to watch twelve tv channels at once, I’ve quickly flipping through them one at a time… I suppose the good news is that I do go back through the channels so I tend to finish my thoughts and tasks, it’s just done in a disjointed scattered fashion.

The two scan results next to each other are equally fascinating. Remember blue indicates under activity, green is average, and red is over activity. The first picture is the Kiddos results, I boxed in the important part that shows his high over activity in the Beta range. The second picture is my results, again I boxed in the important part to show the high activity in the Theta range.

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The lower pictures have something to do with neuron movement. I’m not perfectly clear on the meaning but I believe that since he is over active Beta his are fewer but mine are moving so fast because they are related to Theta. If I knew more about neurology I’d understand better, mostly it’s just fun to see the differences between the two types and how they show up.

I suppose the biggest thing I learned through this is why I am doing so much better in school now (online classes) vs when I was in a physical classroom. With online home schooling I can get up and wander, get distracted and refocus myself … without missing out on information or losing points. Even with the final exams, which are timed three hour multiple choice tests, I can wander out and come back (so long as I monitor the clock to ensure I have enough time left to finish). I have found that I do my best schooling when the Kiddo is home because I have that one extra thing to pay attention too. It really does explain a lot!

The doc DID prescribe medication for me to try if I wanted. It IS a stimulant and it could cause me to have mood swings, excessive fatigue, and lack of appetite. I did fill the script but I haven’t decided yet if I want to take them. The key thought is that using medication to control the ADHD for one month doesn’t mean I would have to continue to use it after that point. Mostly I filled the script because I think it would be interesting to see how it feels to have normal focus; knowing what I “can do” could drive me to try to do better without medication.

At the very least through all of this I was able to have an interesting experience. Think about it how many parents can say they’ve seen how their child's brain functions and been able to compare it to their own? It’s just one more tool for me to use to help my child learn and grow. Very cool!

scans and waves

What do you do when your child's Kindergarten teacher complains that he doesn’t pay attention or complete work. When she says repeatedly that he will fail first grade unless YOU (the parent) can figure out a way to help him fix it? Well first you talk to your pediatrician, and then you and the teacher fill out a Conner's form. As my regular readers know we did that last spring, we filled out ours as honestly as we could. The Kiddo’s teacher filled hers out far more conservatively then we expected from how she had been talking. The pediatrician said that our scores showed he was probably ADHD, but the teachers scores showed that he was not. Long story short we ended up doing nothing and hoping his attention problems were due to maturity and nothing else.

Skip to this fall - First grade and a month into the school year when the Kiddos teacher pulled me aside and mentioned that he was having trouble focusing on his work in class. More importantly he could not seem to follow multi step directions and she was concerned. We were one step ahead of her, already concerned ourselves due to the mid term grade report. Our genius child had mostly 4’s, which are (from what I understand) like a super A+ (meets and EXCEEDS expectations), except for handwriting (a warning flag for ADHD) and aside from respecting adults (which he does) he was marked with ‘needs improvement’ in every single ‘social skills’ area (another ADHD flag).

So we did what any super paranoid parents would do. We found an attention disorders specialist who had the capability of testing the Kiddo in a way that was as far from the subjective questionnaire form as we could get. On the 25th of October we took the Kiddo in and had his brain mapped. The Kiddo loved it! He said it was like being Xavier hooked up to Cerebro.

The following week we had his short term memory tested as well. I didn’t take a picture of that one but basically it was a computer game. The computer told him a number, he repeated it. Then it told him two words, he repeated those. So on and so forth up to 4 or five words. There was “remember where the dots are on the screen and then point to them” games, and remember the last word in a sentence games. I think he had a good time taking that test too.

We received the memory results directly after the test and while he does seem to have a few small issues his scores fall into the ‘average’ range so the doctor thinks they are not something to be concerned about.

We also received the analysis of the Quantitative EEG, it confirmed what we suspected and the Kiddo does have ADHD.

There are several recognized ‘types’ of ADHD and surprisingly his is not inattentive (which would have been my guess). No in his usual “has to be different” way the Kiddo didn’t settle on the average run of the mill type. .. . Instead he has the “only five percent of cases are this type” form…

AD/HD: The theta-beta ratio of 2.86 is normal for age. However, there is significant increased beta relative power compared to controls of the same age and sex. This finding is seen in a subset of individuals who do have ADHD, but may also be present with anxiety or sleep disorder. It is often referred to as “ the too busy brain”.

The over active mind isn’t unusual, but the fact that it comes without the hyperactivity is. I ‘boxed’ in the beta waves section so you can see how overactive his mind is (blue is low activity, green is average, yellow is slightly high, and red is the highest). I underlined sleep disorder because I thought it was interesting; the Kiddo has always been an insomniac and extremely active sleeper I suppose now we know why. Honestly it’s pretty confusing to me but the Man says he understands it so that’s good enough for me …

He has been prescribed Strattera. It is a non stimulant (no hyperactivity means no stimulant) but scary side affects abound (as they do with any medication). He started taking it last Thursday and we hope to see some sort of improvement by the end of this week. So far he has reacted well to it and we haven’t seen any negative physical or emotional side affects. I am hopeful this will remain the case because he has always been ‘the norm’ with medications, responding appropriately with no issues. Soon we should have our amazing perfect highly intelligent child suddenly able to focus… I’m a little excited to see what he can achieve.

Adrenal Insufficient United

Lately I have been crusading, if you're on my facebook page you've probably already noticed. More then half of my posts this past week have been reminders for my friends to sign a petition and pass it along to their friends. Why?

Here's the deal, if the Kiddo was ever in an accident and I was not nearby or alert then the responding medical personnel would have NO clue how to keep him alive. In addition even if by some miracle they knew how they wouldn't be able to anyway because the emergency injection that he would need is not one they carry. I had grudgingly almost accepted that there isn't any real way to change this... except that there is, a group of women started an organization Adrenal Insufficiency United and a petition that will hopefully help to create a change in responder protocols. If you haven't signed the petition yet please do, all we want is training and the correct shot to be carried.

One of the groups creators was interviews by her local radio station recently. The podcast is eye opening, and eerily familiar. It's her story, but it's also ours. The only difference is that kiddo's AI stems from his Pit not his adrenals, it's called panhypopituitarism but the symptoms and crisis issues are all the same.

She mentions in her interview that the University of New Mexico has an AI training program for ems. I went and looked it up, it's nothing I didn't already know but if any of you wanted more information feel free to go give it a look.

I have printed out flyers to have the Kiddo's teacher send out asking for signatures, I handed some to the apartment complex office and even sent some with a friend to her church.

The group has made contact with the Secretaries office of the US Department of Health and Human Services in D.C. Right now the petition is up to 1300 signatures. Listen to the podcast to see why our request wont cost much and makes sense, then sign the petition and pass it along.

Every signature we can get strengthens our cause...

rough start

The Kiddo has been sick off and on for the better part of the school year. It was mostly just a stuffy/runny nose but every now and then he’d develop a cough and every couple weeks he’d spend the weekend with a fever. It was odd but I didn't worry to much because my friends told me that he probably had allergies.

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A few weeks ago Thursday he woke up with yet another fever. I kept him home from school and spent the day alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen to keep his temperature down. The next day he woke up still feverish so we kept him out of school again and set an appointment with his pediatrician. Turns out he had a sinus infection, poor little guy. It’s all cleared up now (thank goodness) but the allergies are persisting so we give him a daily Allegra to help keep things under control.

Even with being sick that weekend was a pretty good one for the Kiddo, his grampie had randomly send him a new toy (a Lego kit of Mario Cart). So when he was feeling a bit better we gave it to him to see what he could do.

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I’m impressed, he build it by himself!! He loves the thing, he lugged it to and from school for a week (it waited in the car while he was in class).

So that’s the good news so far for the month. The bad news is that the Kiddo’s teacher this year has mentioned that he is (still) very unfocused in class. Mrs. H says she knows he’s smart but that he has a lot of trouble following multi step directions and/or finishing his work without constant reminding. She mentioned that he is smart enough that he can probably continue to go through class and learn even with the attention problem but that it might be beneficial to look into it. We were thinking the same thing already because even though his mid term report card was great, all A’s, the ‘social skills’ section was not (all “needs improvement). So we set up an appointment with a attention deficit clinic. We had our initial consult earlier this week, and next Tuesday we’re going to go in and have the Kiddo tested.

(in this picture he is working on learning to type at home)

The first test will be a Quantitative EEG. They will stick a dozen or so electrodes onto his head while he’s watching a movie. Then they will ask him questions with his eyes open, and with his eyes closed. The electrodes will measure his brain activity during the whole process. The results are mapped and the doctor can compare them to the level of activity that a ‘normal’ 6 year old brain exhibits.

The second test he will be taking will be to assess his level of working memory. As I mentioned above he has a lot of trouble remembering multi step instructions. Sometimes we will ask him to go wash his hands and get his pajamas on and by the time he gets to his room he’ll forget what he is supposed to do. This year is different from last in that he recognizes that he is forgetting, you can hear the frustration in his voice when he asks us to remind him what it was we had asked him to do. Mrs. H says it is the same in school, she can see the frustration when he realizes he has forgotten what to do next with activities. She tries to help by laying out his work in ‘order’ so he knows, and she watches him so she can step in and remind him when he needs it.

The tests are scheduled for Tuesday next week. I am excited to have them done because this sounds to me like an actual quantitative way of testing for attention issues (v.s. the questionnaire we did last year that was more subjective).

Growing pains

Recently we changed pharmacies the one we have now ships a three month supply of medication at one time which is convenient. The bad part of that is that when they sent his growth hormone medication the needles they included were a size larger then the ones we had been using.

They are a a tiny bit thicker and about a third longer. The Kiddo doesn’t have enough fat on his arms and legs for us to give him a shot without a little ouch going along with it. He holds up as well as usual though and doesn’t fight getting them -though on two shot day (half a dose from a nearly empty pen the other half from a new one) he gets a little extra unhappy. We’ve started keeping a bin with tiny circle band-aids near where we keep the rest of the shot equipment. When we order his next batch of medication we will request smaller needles and keep our fingers crossed that they send them…

The other day we finally put up the Kiddos growth chart. With those bigger needles I thought the Kiddo might need some visual confirmation of what the shots are doing for him. That and his three month endocrinologist visit was coming up and I wanted to see how much he had grown since the last one in April. We stood him against the wall, put the level on top of the pencil and made a mark. Then we put the green sticky in place and measured - One and a quarter inches!!

Surprisingly enough during the weigh and measure at the docs office on Friday we found that our at home measurement was right on the money. The kiddo has officially gotten back to his over an inch every three months growth pattern. He was so excited he jumped up and down.

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6 1/2 years old and he is now 43 inches tall and 43 pounds.

20/20

Wednesday was the Kiddos’ annual eye appointment. Of all his doctors this one is my least favorite! We go to him because he is supposed to be the leading specialist in optic nerve hypoplasia and we feel like taking him there is the responsible thing to do as parents. Because the Kiddo is a relatively easy case I have no idea what this doctor does that another child ophthalmologist couldn’t do. We drive 40 minutes to his office, then the visit takes a minimum of two hours, and we drive 40 minutes back home. I have never had a visit, door to door, last under four hours.

The kiddo handles it far better then you would think. He does gets hungry and bored but I take snacks (sandwich baggie of crackers) and distract him with his hand held game system and a book or two.

This months appointment went the same as all the others. I bit my tongue as the less then intelligent tech tried to get the Kiddo to read the numbers with his bad eye (all the while really really wanting to smack him on the head and say “he can’t SEE through that one dummy”). We waited some more after that, then we saw the Doctor who pointed out the drift in his “blind” left eye. We refuse to have surgery done on him and on this visit the doc didn’t push it as hard as he usually does, which was refreshing. The Kiddo got drops for dilation, and we waited some more. They looked in his eyes, said he looked good, and sent us on our way.

The good news is that the small bit of nearsightedness the Kiddo had in his right eye is gone. He is now officially 20/20 in that eye!! Doc isn’t sure how that’s possible (because the nerve in that eye is a bit underdeveloped) but it is and we are really happy about it. He does still need to wear glasses in order to protect his eyes. So we’ll save up our pennies and get him new lenses as soon as we can (right now he has basic polycarbonate lenses, he needs scratch resistant ones, along with transition to help with his sensitivity to bright light).

Six Months

It’s been about six months since the kiddo broke his leg. Last Friday was his four months checkup since after the cast came off . From the top view you can't even see the break anymore, and from the side you can SEE the new bone growth. It helps me feel less nervous that he’s going to break it again while it’s still healing.

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Doc said he is doing amazing, him and his residents spent some time bending both his legs around and marveling at how symmetrical his flexibility is. Apparently there is usually a problem with that, but not with the Kiddo… because when he does something he does it well!! When he broke it he broke it well, and now that he’s heeling his body is determined to do that well also.

The doctor said that the foot pain the Kiddo has been experiencing is probably due to somewhat flat feet combined with an odd gait caused by the difference in leg length and the unusual pressure it puts on his feet. Nothing much we can do for that but keep an eye on it and wait.

Of course healing a big bone takes a couple years so we’ll keep going in for checkups, the next one will be in January. Until then we’ll continue to nag him to stretch a bit each day, sit right, and walk right. I think the one change we’ll have to make is to buy him new shoes. If the flat foot is part of the pain problem, and the difference in length is causing pressure problems, then good quality shoes should help with that. No more $9 walmart specials for awhile *sigh*

hobble

Today we go see the orthopedic surgeon. I am hopeful that we will find out that the Kiddo is recovering normally and that no physical therapy will be required. I’m not sure though because he still walks with his left foot turned outwards and when he is tired or has done a lot of walking he still hobbles on his toes as if his heels hurt. I will, of course, update later this evening.

Summer Cold

I mentioned in my last post that the kiddo is dealing with a summer cold. He’s had to miss out on swimming for the past several days because I didn’t want it to get worse. Yesterday he woke up with a gurgle cough and a slight temperature (it hovered above 99 degrees all day). For the most part I let him do what he wanted, which was hang out and watch Bob the Builder. Mid day though I dragged him outside to sit on a hill and try to get some sunshine, the Kiddo brought his lion stuffy and his book.

When the Kiddo woke up this morning he had a pretty high temperature, 102.6!! Poor little thing, he’s itching to play but feeling like crap. I asked him if he wanted to go see a doctor and he said “well, not yet… I feel mostly okay, maybe tomorrow.” The meds have brought the temp down and helped the cough so we’ll keep an eye on him and wait it out. It’s going to be another Bob the Builder day…

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two weeks later... mouse steps

Two weeks after his cast came off the Kiddo finally takes some mouse steps, up till this point we had managed to get maybe one or two steps out of him. A visit to his cousins house, a half dozen people cheering him on, and he walked a couple feet. We came home and I asked him to do it again for a video. This is the video,

The thought of falling terrifies him, taking that first step was a hurdle, taking the second (weight on his "bad" leg) was a bigger one. Now he knows he can do it, but he still has to talk himself into the first step. Still he's done it, and now we're moving on to the next stage, the long process of getting strength back into those muscles! I am really proud of our Kiddo... he has come a long way in two weeks :)

Endo Visit

Last Friday we took the Kiddo to his every three month Endocrinologist visit. There really isn’t all that much to tell, all the blood work (done a month prior) came back normal so all his medications stay at the same dosage. They had not received the bone density x-ray yet so there isn’t anything to report with that. I will say though that with the medication levels in his system normal I’m fairly certain that the x-ray is just a back up to the stated “everything's on track carry on” assessment.

Our doctor (or his nurse that is) does not have any sense. My mom commented on one of last weeks posts that she hoped they would be smart enough to measure the Kiddo by laying him down and marking off his height that way. They didn’t, he even had to stand to get weighed!! We took off his shoes and got him standing on the scale, then tried to get him to let go and balance for a second. He managed, but only barely. We did the same thing with his height, he stood the best he could and she quickly marked it off. I’m pretty sure his feet were flat (I checked the best I could while holding him up) so I think the measurement is close to accurate.

The last weight and height stats we have were done three months ago on January 7th.

January 7, 2011 ................ 41.25” ................... 38.4lbs

April 15, 2011 ................... 41.75” .................... 38.6lbs

I am pleased with the half an inch of growth, and very happy with only a tiny weight gain. I was concerned that with him sitting on his butt for two months in the spica cast he might gain a little tummy. Good job Kiddo! I’ll be interested to see where he stands at his next appointment at the end of July. For now there are no more doctor visits until June when we have his eye doctor appointment and his dentist appointment.

I’m itching for that eye doctor appointment to happen, his current glasses are to small (they leave pressure marks on his nose and ears) and while I’m not enthusiastic about buying new ones I WILL be happy to see him more comfortable (and playing with them less).

Pushing limits ..

I mentioned a few posts ago that we were going to try to get the Kiddo some smaller wheels. We went and picked them up Monday afternoon.

He loves them! It is so much easier for him to move around (he can even push himself now). We ended up with a size 14 instead of a 12 so he still needs a pillow at his back but other then that he fits in it fairly comfortably.

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Mrs. S practically danced for joy when she saw that he fits under the desk at school so that he no longer needs to use the special laptop computer table. Before (with the large wheel chair) he was set to the side, he couldn’t really see the board and wasn’t able to “sit” around the rug with the other kids. Smaller wheels means he can now be in the middle and actually feels like he’s part of the class again.

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We have two rules for the chair. At school he is never allowed to get out of it, and he is never allowed to push himself. Out of school he can push himself but he is not allowed to try to get out without help. That isn’t really a problem though because we are leaving the chair in the car, he shouldn’t ever need it in the house and we want keep him trying to move around by himself.

The Man had the great idea of buying a child sized soccer ball. He thought it would inspire the Kiddo to move his leg more frequently, and help with his at home version of physical therapy. The kiddo LOVES soccer, I wish he had been physically ready to join a team this year, it would have helped with his social skills as well as his coordination. Maybe next year.

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He has bruised the bottom of his feet by being so motivated to stand and move. The doctor said that heel pain is completely normal but that if it doesn’t go away or gets worse then we should call on Monday for a follow up xray. So far the pain seems to be worse but it’s hard to tell (the kiddo wont admit to any pain at all). To help with it I have been trying to keep him crawling (rather then walking), and of course he gets daily warm baths to ease the muscles. A little couch cuddle time doesn’t hurt either…

oooh oooh pick me

Two years ago when the Kiddo was 4 he had his fist bone density x-ray. We lugged him to the hospital and finally convinced him to hold still long enough for a picture to be taken of his hand. He didn’t understand what we were doing, but thought the lady operating the machine was nice.

Last year right about the same time, 5 years old and mid April, he had his hand x-rayed again. Same lady, same “hold still already yet jeez” conversation. Same explanation that we were taking a picture of the bones in his hand so we could see how old THEY are compared to how old he is.

This year, like clockwork, we went in again. Six years old, mid April, another bone density x-ray. But this time we got smart, we finally realized that we could request a copy of the x-ray image! The Kiddo loves them, he thinks the picture of his 4 year old hand is so tiny and cute. I have to say I agree.

Yeah the kiddo has some medical issues, but hey if he didn’t we would get to have little x-ray pictures of his hand. How’s that for a silver lining :)

Aaaaand it’s off!

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The first picture is the one taken back at the start of February, eight days after he broke his leg. The second picture is what the Kiddo’s leg looked like on Friday. It still looks broken to ME but then I don’t have years of schooling or a fancy piece of paper telling me what to look for. It does look quite a bit better then it did so I’m happy. The doctor said he thought it looked great. He also said the Kiddo’s cast was one of the cleanest he’s ever seen. I wonder if he says that to everybody?

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The actual cast removal went smoothly. The Kiddo is a pretty smart one, he listened when the doc explained how the saw could cut the cast but not him, and how loud it was going to be. So he spent the removal watching the assistant work and asking questions. The first picture is him waiting his turn. The cast was really thick around his thigh because they’d had to redo it when they put it on, it took forever for her to get it cut all the way through. She used a nut cracker type thing to pry it apart, then lifted the front piece off. After that it was a matter of cutting through the padding, and getting him dressed. The orthopedic surgeon came in again to check his leg movement and said he looked great. We are supposed to let him try to do what he wants with it, no physical therapy should be needed just patience and time. The Kiddo was ecstatic to have it off.

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Of course the Kiddo is his fathers son, he is stubborn and has a very high pain tolerance. That being the case he tried crawling almost as soon as we got home. Once he realized he could crawl, he figured he’d try standing as well. He was wobbly but kept telling us proudly about how he could “balance”. So of course, the next thing to try was walking. Which he did. And then kept on trying to do until bed time.

When it was finally bed time I decided that I would do a sleepover with him. I thought it might be wise to keep an eye on him with his gung ho attitude and the leg pain I was sure would set in sometime in the middle of the night. As we settled under the covers to go to sleep he stretched as big as he could, and then rolled over to his stomach. He said “aaaaaah, NOW my wings can grow”. I suppose laying on your back for two months would kind of hinder wing growth.

That first night he startled himself awake several times. Saturday he did not want to walk nearly as much, I can only imagine how stiff and sore his muscles were. Every time I tried to have him stand to balance he told me the bottoms of his heels hurt. I’m not sure what’s up about that (we are waiting to hear back from the doctor to see if that’s normal or not). Sunday was more of the same, some crawling and absolutely NO walking. I’m actually relieved, the walking was scary I knew he wasn’t ready for that yet (most kids don't even TRY until much later).

Today is Monday and he is skipping school. We are trying to get his extra large wheelchair traded for a smaller one that will fit him. I know the big one wont work for him in school and don’t think it’s fair to ask Mrs. S to try to lug him from place to place, and so I think one more day of missed class is probably the best option. We should be able to go switch the wheels this afternoon and then tomorrow he’ll be able to show them off to his friends. Meanwhile it’s computer games, reading, and playing with the dog (something he hasn’t been able to do since the cast went on). He even got out of bed himself this morning (crawled down and into my bedroom) instead of waiting for me to go get him. I’m proud him for how much he’s willing to do, he really is an amazing Kiddo.

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(Good morning mom!) … (Look I can jump.. well bounce a little anyway)

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(Playing fetch.. it’s been two months since they’ve played, they both loved it)