Summer is here!

Memphis playing with his floaties

Memphis has been doing very well and enjoying summer. He is starting to vocalize himself somewhat, but everything still has the same basic B or D sound to it. Everyday he is getting so much better at signing though. He now signs book, and he strings signs together. We are so proud of our little man. His favorite thing about summer so far has been water. He loves the pool! I'm pretty sure he just thinks it's a big bath, but nonetheless he loves it. The whole family went downtown over last weekend to play in a small water area. You know the type, it sprays water up from the concrete in about a dozen places. While Braden and Rowan sat around, Memphis was running, laughing and just absolutely loving it!

Just lounging in the sun!

Memphis absolutely loves the outside, and we intend on letting him play out in it as much as we can!

Thanks for reading

Some fun

Just a short video of Braden and Memphis playing for those of you that are not on my facebook.

Small, but good!

Hello all!

Memphis went in for a followup on Wednesday regarding his eye surgery. The doctor was quite impressed with his progress. He inquired about how much we had been patching. We were supposed to patch every day for about an hour, but alas life got in the way. Memphis absolutely hated it regardless. We have not been patching at all. The doctor was amazed at that point. Memphis' eyes track great and he sees now problems reoccurring for now. A long day for mommy and Braden, but it was good news.

Signing with him is doing great! He currently has about 20 signs that he does, and he understands many more. He is making lots of noise now, but none seem to be trying to communicate other than just getting our attention. Regardless he is making such big boy progress!

We are currently working on birthday plans for his second birthday! He is such a big guy now. I will let everyone know what the plans are when we get them finalized.

Until next time.

If you want more information regarding CDH you can always visit http://www.cherubs-cdh.org/

Everyday life, and everything is good

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. Memphis is doing great! He is now using sign language as his primary form of communication. He shows no sign of really "wanting" to talk. He has aroudn ten to fifteen signs that he uses. Dog, cat, water, eat, and a few more. None of them are perfect, but we know what he means.

One of our biggest hurdles as of so far is him becoming more mobile. A couple of weeks ago we spent a whole day in the hospital because he had pulled out s g-tube button while we weren't looking. We had to go to the local hospital first, just to get something pushed through the hole. After they convinced us that they could get the button itself back in, we waited and watched them push and prod on the little man for a couple of hours. All the time we are having to hold him down. Finally they got a foley catheter pushed through and sent us on to Birmingham. Of course now it was almost seven in the evening. Two hours later and about 120 miles, we were seen in the ER of Children's hospital. When the surgeon finally came in, he was done in two minutes. Man talk about a cranky little guy the next few days. Lesson learned: Just tell the local guys to stick something through, so we can begin driving to Birmingham.

His eye surgery has seemed to corrected everything. The over correction even seems to be going away. Two little beautiful eyes looking straight at you now. His hearing was tested a few days ago d everything still seems fine with that also. If we can just get him to eat now.

On the subject of eating, all the specialists say that he is on the right track. He will taste almost anything once, and come back over and over for salty things. He just wants the taste though, not the substance. He immediatlely tries to remove anything solid that gets in his mouth.

Well, school is almost out, the days are long, and the kids always want to be outside. Memphis included. He loves the outside. His most upsetting parts of the day is when Mommy or Daddy have to leave and he cant go with them. Still the happiest baby though.

Thanks for reading!

Strabismus

We just arrived back from Birmingham, from a follow up after Memphis' eye surgery.  For those that didn't know, Memphis' left eye had a strong inward pull. Dr. Cogen told us to attempt patching, but if that did not work, surgery would be necessary. Needless to say, surgery was needed. A very simple surgery was done to allow his eyes to drift outward. At today's follow up, the doctor stated that everything looked wonderful, and now we wait to see if his brain accepts the information from the left eye. We all hope it does.

Memphis has been doing very well, and the surgery only had him under the weather for about a day. Quite amazing how quickly a little one's body recovers. He has been running around the house like crazy now, unfortunately bouncing off of every corner, door, and other head level objects. Maybe one day he will learn to look where he is walking. Doubtful, I still walk into stationary objects myself.

Speech therapy has been started with Memphis, due to the fact that he seems uninterested completely in talking. He communicates mainly with hand gestures and grunts. Our little caveman. He is now nineteen months old, and should be making some attempt at vocal communication, but alas he loves to be difficult.

Surgery update

Sorry for the long delay... The days have been shorter and fuller since then. Memphis' surgery went well, as planned. The lump was just a fatty benign mass. The day of surgery, Memphis was wowing all the nurses with his charm as usual; doing somersaults in the bed, playing with toys, and getting the maximum number of "awws" that he could. The surgeon was very interested in his eating problems, and seemed to be the most educated person that we had spoken to about CDH in Huntsville. He was so interested, that he decided to order a swallow study on Memphis in the next following days. After surgery, Memphis was so mad, as expected. He only had to stay about an hour, just until the general anesthesia had worn off enough. At home he was his normal self after a long nap and some food. Acting as if nothing had happened.

The swallow study went as we had expected. Memphis would swallow nothing. It was a big flop, nothing was proven or dis proven. Once again we are left with the solution of just waiting until he decides to eat.

Once again, sorry for the long wait, and the lack of information, but I will sit down and write a proper write up soon. He has gotten so big and mobile.

A small surgery

Memphis will go in for a small surgery today. He has what seems to be a fatty lump under his left arm, and the doctor has insisted that it needs to be removed. An adult would simply just receive local anesthesia, but being a child, and lacking the ability to just lie still, he will have to be put under general anesthesia. Should be simple, just keep the little man in your thoughts.