Well, first off, Colin is HAPPY! I say this because 9 times out of 10, the first question out of people's mouth when they see us is "How is Colin doing?". And while I appreciate the concern, I don't think there is an understanding to what that question is really asking me. Because Colin has SOOO many things that we are following up with the doctor and therapists, asking how he is doing is like asking me how every part in my car is working. There are so many aspects that I could discuss, that I get stuck on how to answer. I wonder, do they really want to know Colin's entire medical progress to date? Or are they just trying to make polite conversation? And sometimes even when I answer "He's fine", I'll still get follow up questions. If I could share with you all what my mind is really thinking, I would tell everyone to first start out by asking me "Is Colin happy?". Because that is the one question that has an easy answer. 9 times out of 10, it will be a resounding YES!
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| Mom & Dad, I love you! |
But since most of you are here to find out how Colin is doing, here is where I can get in depth and REALLY tell you all the nitty gritty details!
First off, Colin is now 8 months chronological, 5 months adjusted. Wow! In another 4 months, it will have been a year since we started this crazy journey with him.
When we first came home, Colin had no less than 6 doctors that he was following up with on a weekly basis, was on no fewer than 7 medications, and used various medical equipment.
Now, we are down to 3 medicines (and maybe even down to 1 by the end of the month!), he uses ZERO medical equipment, and right now, I can't even remember the last time we went to the doctor!
Even with these progresses, we still are facing the possible outcome of Cerebral Palsy (CP for short). This medical condition will have the most impact on his quality of life.
Here are two videos that I think provide a good description of what Cerebral Palsy is, and how it affects the body.
Because CP centers on brain damage, trying to somehow rewire his brain has been a hope and focus of ours.
Science has determined that in the first 2 years of life, the brain is still developing to it's typical fullest potential. While science has also discovered that even past the age of 2 the brain still has the ability to rewire itself (ala Gabby Gifford in AZ) making changes in these first 2 years of life can have the STRONGEST impact.
For this reason, we knew that really focusing on his brain gave us a better chance of fighting off or reducing the impact of Cerebral Palsy. To be clear, at this point in time, his doctors have not OFFICIALLY diagnosed Colin with CP. Because of the 2 year development of the brain, doctors usually like to wait until children have reached this age to say with certainty what type of CP a child could have. However if you saw Colin in person, you can see some possible early signs that CP is starting to affect parts of his body.
Because of these early signs, shortly after we came home from the hospital, we quickly started Colin on various types of therapies to help him reach milestones like rolling over, crawling, etc. While each have had their specific purpose, all of them for the most part overlapped. I may have mentioned these therapies before, but in case I didn't, he was doing a combination of Physical, Occupational and Early Intervention therapies. To get an idea of what we focus on during therapy with Colin, here is another video of a baby with CP (I'm assuming this child is 2 years of age or older). Colin does similar things with his body, and has been doing similar types of exercises. (It's kinda long, so watch enough until you get the gist, or watch it all, your choice).
While each of them seem to make some progress on what his body can do, overall it was hard to tell if they made a HUGE impact. So with the prodding of a friend, we decided to start to look into doing alternative therapies.
Our choices for therapy lead us down 2 possible paths: The Institute or ABM. What are these therapies and what did we choose? Well, stay tuned to find out in the next blog post, and you will be stunned with the outcome!
