Saturday, October 17, 2009

I’ve been meaning to write for the last couple days. There has been so much that has happened since I last wrote that I don’t know where to begin. All I can think about is how proud I am of Hunter. He has come such a long way in the last couple months. I wish there was a way that I could express to him how proud I am and make him understand.

Hunter has been going at physical and occupational therapy pretty hard in the last couple weeks. It is making a huge difference in development. Hunter is crawling, playing, putting balls into baskets and taking them out. He has been so interactive and fun. His attitude is changing and he seems to like his new found independence. He has developed a screaming habit. He gets excited and screams. It is cute for the first hour! In addition to his physical therapy, I take him to an additional physical therapy short appointment. At this appointment, he does a baby treadmill. His physical therapist hooks him to a harness and makes him walk. It helps him to learn the one foot in front of the other concept. It also exercises all those muscles in his legs that are affected by the Cerebral Palsy. His hamstrings seem to be his biggest problem. But, he still has range of motion. Hunter is at PT and OT four times a week.

Hunter is doing very positive things with his legs. The future is still unknown. The more he builds the muscles in his legs, the brighter the future is getting for him. Again, Cerebral Palsy has such a wide spectrum of severity. Some children walk on their tip toes and this is due to muscle tone. This causes walking difficulty for these children. Hunter is able to place his feet flat on the ground. His Physical Therapist saw him this week. When she came over and started to work with him, tears filled her eyes. I looked over and she was crying. She couldn’t believe his turn around. In his home therapy session, Hunter was STANDING against the couch, playing with a toy that was on a couch cushion.

Hunter has a pulmonary appointment coming up. I’m really excited for this appointment. Hunter has been falling asleep and not needing the oxygen. His oxygen saturation stays in the upper 90’s while sleeping. Lately, it has not fallen below 95%. He has been off oxygen during the day (for the most part) for awhile now. He needed it while he slept and that was a hurdle that was hard to cross for him. He is doing it now! I almost don’t want to get my hopes up yet, so I’m not going to jinx him and say any more about this.

We have had a bout with illness and Hunter is taking Tamiflu (anti-viral medication). It has not affected him too severely or it was caught early and the Tamiflu stopped it before it became serious.

I am in the process of converting his Caring Bridge journal over to Blogger. In Blogger, I’m removing the password, and his journal will be public. I have thought about this and whether I wanted such a personal thing to be made public. Then, I remember back to when I was pregnant, on bed rest, knowing that I was in preterm labor, and seeking information on what it would be like to have a micro preemie. If Hunter’s journal, could give someone hope, support, and encouragement then it is completely worth it. If having Hunter’s journal public starts causing problems and I start getting weird people posting weird stuff, I can put a password on it. Blogger has many benefits that Caring Bridge doesn’t have. First, I can post current pictures with my journal entries. I can also post videos. I have some really cute videos of him that I haven’t let anyone see yet. I will send out an email when I’m finished. It will include the web address to Hunter’s page. After his page is done, I will not be sending Hunter updates by email anymore. His journal will be easily accessible.

I also wanted to remind everyone that the Fashion Show for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital is on November 12th. Tickets are $25.00, this includes a pasta bar. All profits go to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. I am a speaker and have been busy writing, preparing, and practicing my speech. I’m SOOOO nervous! I already have stage fright! I can’t believe that I fit Hunter’s story into a 10 minute speech. That was a challenge. Hunter will be a model at the Fashion show. If you are interested, please let me know.