Today was the end of Noah's services through our local early intervention program. After coming home from saying our goodbyes to Ms. Debbie, his speech therapist, I was remembering back to where he was just over a year ago. He has come a long, long way!
One year ago, Noah was 24 months old and his speech was at a 12-15 month level. Each and every speech session we had focused on getting him to either sign or make a sound for things that he wanted, rather than pointing, grunting or crying. It took a lot of creativity to get him to engage in any attempts to make sounds. We would work in one of the OT gyms so that he could do physical activity while being coaxed to talk. We played lots of "ready-set-go" games and early on, we celebrated when he would attempt to say go after the therapist said ready-set.....and it sounded more like "KO!!!".
Today, Noah is 3 days shy of being 36 months and his speech is right about 26 months. He is still behind but has made so. much. progress. There was a beautiful moment in his speech session today, where he started a game by saying "weady! set! GO!!!!", ran and jumped off the mat then exclaimed, "I did it!!!" Such sweet words to hear from my little man. Yes, you sure did do it, Noah. Mama and Papa are very proud of you. In just a few weeks, we'll get to meet your new therapist who will help us get the rest of the way there. I can't wait to hear all the new things you're going to be saying in the next year!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
First the ears, now the eyes.
Those of you who have been following our blog know that we were very excited to get Noah's tubes placed and get on with his language progression and helping him catch up. Glad to be in smooth waters for a change. And then we started noticing that his eye we had been keeping close watch on seemed to be getting worse. He was diagnosed with a superior oblique palsy in his left eye (fancy term for eye that wanders up and out) last year. Because of all his other health issues, we have been watching it closely, but not treating. The eye doctor had told us that when he was healthier, we could work on getting him in glasses and that he *might*, somewhere down the line, need eye muscle surgery. We've noticed that he's been falling. A lot. We started paying closer attention after his fall that required 9 stitches just above his left eye. He's actually run right into things a few times (that we've witnessed...who know's how many times we haven't seen). I decided it was time to get him back into the eye doctor. After having to be persistent that I did not want to wait until the end of September, we got in to see her two weeks ago.
It's never a good thing when the doctor walks in the room, crouches down to talk face to face with your child then stands up and says, "Well, it certainly looks like you need my help!". After she looked at a series of tests one of the techs did and then tested his eyes herself, she said that she was pretty sure this was not just a muscle palsy, but rather a structural problem. In. both. eyes. Say what???? Turns out that his right eye is off too, but we never noticed because it looks pretty normal compared to the left! She estimates he has no depth perception about 80% of the time. Well, that certainly explains why he falls and runs into things! At this point, we had been in the office for HOURS and Noah and I were both tired and crabby and it was all I could do not to burst into tears. When we left, the plan was that we will be doing some eye muscle training using eye drops for the next month then return to see her for more testing and to further discuss surgery. At least I thought that was the plan. I got a call two days later from her surgery scheduler saying that doctor really wanted to get this surgery on the books. She went on to explain that it will involve correcting the position of four muscles around each eye. So, it's now scheduled for October 25th. I have a lot of praying and processing to do before then, but for now, am keeping myself busy with other stuff and trying not to think about it the scary parts too much but am choosing to remember all these positives:
1. His doctor has done hundreds and hundreds of these surgeries over the past 20 years.
2. He will have the same anesthesia he had for his ear tubes that we know he does ok with. (And this is no small thing!)
3. The surgery will be in the same small surgery center as his ear tubes. (We were really happy with the facility and staff).
4. The doctor told me that she has observed over her career that age 3 seems to be the perfect age for eye muscle surgery. Any younger is not good and the older you get, the harder the recovery.
5. Last, but by no means LEAST, the same Sovereign God who knit this child together in my womb already knows the plan and will be there alongside us. Every. step. of. the. way. Can I get an AMEN???
It's never a good thing when the doctor walks in the room, crouches down to talk face to face with your child then stands up and says, "Well, it certainly looks like you need my help!". After she looked at a series of tests one of the techs did and then tested his eyes herself, she said that she was pretty sure this was not just a muscle palsy, but rather a structural problem. In. both. eyes. Say what???? Turns out that his right eye is off too, but we never noticed because it looks pretty normal compared to the left! She estimates he has no depth perception about 80% of the time. Well, that certainly explains why he falls and runs into things! At this point, we had been in the office for HOURS and Noah and I were both tired and crabby and it was all I could do not to burst into tears. When we left, the plan was that we will be doing some eye muscle training using eye drops for the next month then return to see her for more testing and to further discuss surgery. At least I thought that was the plan. I got a call two days later from her surgery scheduler saying that doctor really wanted to get this surgery on the books. She went on to explain that it will involve correcting the position of four muscles around each eye. So, it's now scheduled for October 25th. I have a lot of praying and processing to do before then, but for now, am keeping myself busy with other stuff and trying not to think about it the scary parts too much but am choosing to remember all these positives:
1. His doctor has done hundreds and hundreds of these surgeries over the past 20 years.
2. He will have the same anesthesia he had for his ear tubes that we know he does ok with. (And this is no small thing!)
3. The surgery will be in the same small surgery center as his ear tubes. (We were really happy with the facility and staff).
4. The doctor told me that she has observed over her career that age 3 seems to be the perfect age for eye muscle surgery. Any younger is not good and the older you get, the harder the recovery.
5. Last, but by no means LEAST, the same Sovereign God who knit this child together in my womb already knows the plan and will be there alongside us. Every. step. of. the. way. Can I get an AMEN???
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