Life is never boring, if you pay attention. There is always wonder all around us. It is often easier to recognize this when with children. At least, that is true for me.
There is much to offer in the form of updates. Much more than I will likely type. I forget things and get lost in the everyday. A few things are worth noting though.
You might have noticed in a few photos that Lucas got glasses. We have had the Rx for them for months, but finally got them in January. In February he was fitted for orthotics. He has been rolling his ankles in toward each other for sometime. As we are trying to encourage him to stand and walk more, we want to be sure that there is no malformation in his young form that carries into his life-long form. THey fit over his foot entirely and there is a hinge connected to a support that covers his ankle and most of his calf. We had to get new sneakers to fit the orthotics inside them and we got another pair for a more sturdy everyday support in his actual size. It's funny that though the orthotics-sized sneakers are 3 sizes larger than what he needs, they don't look like clown shoes at all since he is so tall. :)
In February we also had a check up with his neurologist, Dr. Burris and had blood work drawn to make sure the medicine is doing no harm. Since beginning this medicine (Felbatol, it's called), his seizure activity had decreased from around 50-60/day averages to 15-30/day averages. His blood work was also perfect, no harm from the meds.
February closed with vomit. Yes, vomit. Lucas threw up all he had eaten on Thursday the 24th, again on Saturday the 26th and again on Tuesday the 1st. Every time his appetite returned, so did the vomit. No fever. Behaving pretty much normally. Vomit. After that third incident, we brought him to the hospital. They found that the setting on his shunt (it can be programmed to different flow rates, allowing more or less fluid as the need may be) was set two settings off where it was supposed to be, allowing too much fluid to be excreted and the fluid level in his brain was low. It was not severely low, but still lower than it should have been. They also discovered a urinary tract infection (UTI). Neither of these things typically cause vomiting, but it is not outside the realm of possibility that either could. It is also possible that he had a virus causing vomiting and that caused decreased fluids in his brain and that kept the vomit coming. We don't really know. What we do know is that he is doing much better now.
They gave him antibiotics for the UTI and reprogrammed his shunt to adjust the flow rate. His appetite is back in full swing and the food is working its way all the way through him. (Oh, how someday he will ask me why I had to talk so much about his poop!) They only kept him overnight. Marc stayed with him through the night and Eliana and I stayed late and returned early. It was not the way Marc prefers to spend a day off work, but Thank God he was able to be there with us. And thank God it was such a short visit. It is still too early to make an official judgment, but it seems that perhaps adjusting the flow rate has impacted his seizure activity. He has hardly had any that we have noticed. Two or three in a day, if that since Saturday. Pretty exciting, right? It's amazing how something that seems so awful can result in such a beautifully wonderful thing. God is good.
One other Lucas announcement comes just today. At school he held his cereal bar (like NutriGrain) and gave himself a couple bites with his teacher only supporting him at the wrist. At home for lunch he did the same thing with his sandwich. I placed it in his hand and he brought it to his mouth and took a bite! He's done things like this before, but only once in a while, and he acted almost as if it were a mistake, that he was really reaching for his cup, not his spoon/fork. Today's actions were purposeful and repetitive. THis is a great step in the self-feeding direction!
In Eliana news, she had been taking a talking hiatus while figuring some physical stuff. We visited my grandparents and after a few minutes with her Great-grandma Rene, she was talking up a storm again. We haven't been able (not that we've tried or want) to get her to stop. She is a constant gibber-jabber. :) Also, just this Sunday evening, she decided to crawl for the first time. She has been scooting for a while, backwards since around Thanksgiving, but this was the first genuine-proper-form crawl. Marc put a video on youtube. She was pretty much done with the crawl by the time he got the video going, but you can still get a peek.
I'm off to cut the boy's hair and give him a bath. Blessings to you all!
