Friday, July 17, 2009

Austin update

July is a very busy month for Austin.  He has appointments with all of his specialists in addition to his MRI and was evaluated by both physical and speech therapists.  He has been receiving physical therapy for 18 months, weekly for the past year, and this week his therapist discharged him because he no longer needs therapy! He was considered 58% delayed in gross motor skills as of December 2008, and now is only 18% delayed.  In December he wasn't even crawling, and now he is almost running so he has come a long way. The speech evaluation determined that he is only delayed 2 months in language expression (speaking) and is actually testing at 4 months above his age for understanding language.  So he is not going to be receiving any therapy for the time being, unless he has some kind of setback in the future.  He had an MRI of the brain and spine on July 14.  This is a 3 hour long procedure under anesthesia but he came through it with no problems.  On July 15 we saw his neurosurgeon, Dr. Tomita who did not recognize him at first because he looks like such a big kid now, walking all over the halls of the Brain Tumor Center.  He gave us the results of the MRI, no changes were seen in the brain lesions and this is fantastic news (the only better news would be that they are gone all together).  He doesn't have to have another MRI for 9 months.  Today he saw the eye doctor who also has no concerns about his eyes.  Next week we will see his dermatologist and the following week his new neurologist.  Austin is having a great summer playing with his big brothers and spending a lot of time in the sandbox.  He is the friendliest little boy I've ever seen and so darn cute! We are so excited about his 2nd birthday coming up next month and can't wait to host another celebration of his life.  We got to spend another year in the company of this amazing little boy, watching him grow and getting the chance to hold him and love him whenever we want. Knowing other families would give anything to have their children in their arms again makes me realize that every day should be celebrated and we are so thankful for Austin!

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