Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Long Overdue Post

Before surgery



After surgery






Poor belly


Ready to go home.


It has been a few months since my last post. For the most part we have been following our routine of PT twice a week, OT once, AVT once and Feeding therapy once a week. We switched back to Nick's old AVT therapist. She had gone on maternity leave so we had to take him to the USC clinic. Well then she decided to start her own company and work a few days a week. So he is receiving his AVT, hearing therapy, at home again. I'm glad she came back because the USC clinic followed the school's schedule and had breaks between semesters so he would go about a month without therapy. Nick has really made great progress in PT the few months he has been seeing his new therapist. He is almost sitting unsupported. He can do it if he has his hands just right on the floor in front of him or a toy to hold on to. Then he gets excited or tries to play with something and he loses his balance. He is also doing better with eating. He is doing more chunky stage 3 baby foods and not gagging. He also ate a scrambled egg last week.


The big news with him is he had his gallbladder and port removed in September. The port removal was no problem the the gallbladder was more complicated than expected. The surgeon had to do an open surgery rather than laproscopically because of his previous stomach surgeries. There was a possibility of scar tissue and adhesions connecting the gallbladder to the liver and when the doctor got inside he found this was the case. Once the gallbladder was removed he did a dye study to make sure everything was connected and and flowing properly and he discovered a cyst. He couldn't physically see the cyst, only saw it from the dye study. He is pretty sure it is in the pancreas and said removing it will be very invasive. So right now the surgeon and the GI doctor are going to watch it. It can cause infection but isn't causing any problems right now so we aren't jumping into another surgery.


We are transitioning from early intervention to the school system. The state's EI program ends at age three so he will start a special needs preschool. We have a PT evaluation with the school this week and his general evaluation next week. The school district has a different preschool program at each school. We don't know where he will go until after his evaluations.