Clinic Day 4 -- Thursday

I'm too tired to go into detail, but we had another good day at the clinic working with doctors, teachers and nutritionists. We got some good new things to try from the doctor for some nutritional problems Noah is having as well as some new yoga positions to loosen the hip, adductors, and hamstrings.

We got a new intellectual program that I think Noah will really enjoy, but I don't feel overwhelmed by. She gave us some good suggestions on organizing the program and keeping records of Noah's work. I think he will really enjoy it!

Lastly today, we saw the nutritionist who put the doctor's suggestions for supplements and tests down on paper in an understandable format.

I may not get a chance to post tomorrow about the final program (since we will finish up in the clinic and head a few hours down the road), but I have some good pictures to share and will let you know about more of the whys and hows by the end of the weekend.

Gut Laugh

We finished our lectures days with great relief (normally we love the lectures -- and we enjoyed these -- but we have done this series three times before), and we are looking forward to learning a great new program over the next couple of days that will continue to make a big difference in Noah's life.

Tomorrow night I can start letting you know about our new program, but until then, I will leave you with a video of one of my favorite sounds in the world -- Noah's gut laugh. He is sitting with my dad who is whispering silly songs in Noah's ear. This was just one laugh, but they did this for about half an hour. I bet Noah's belly is sore now!

Clinic Day 3 -- Evaluation

We had our evaluation day today, which went pretty smoothly. We saw Dr. Morales again, and he worked with Noah on relaxation biofeedback. Sounds complicated, but all he did was hook up some of Noah's tighter muscles to a computer program that measured the electrical output of those muscles. When he was relaxed below a certain threshold, a movie would play (Nemo -- Noah's favorite). When he tensed the muscles, the movie would pause, and he would have to relax them again to get the movie to start back up. It was really neat, and the doctor used it as a measuring tool to see how long it would take for him to relax below a certain level.

After that, they did Noah's evaluation, which was very good. He showed the some good crawling on the incline, impressed them (as always) with his reading ability, and enjoyed all the other little experiments they did with vision, touch, etc.

Next was measurement, which was not as good. Noah hasn't gained any weight this period (of which we were aware), so he overall growth was pretty low.

Lastly we did the evaluation summery, which was much more positive. In a nutshell, Noah's hip has improved, his reflux has improved, his body movement has improved, he is less rigid (i.e. has improved), his vision has improved, he's extremely intelligent, and I am sure there is something else that I can't think of right now.

The next two days, Drew and I will be in lectures, but the focus of Thursday and Friday will be on getting program that will help to continue Noah's hip improvement and try to solve his vomiting problem (every couple weeks, Noah has a night where he gets sick at his stomach and vomits several times for no apparent reason. Then he's fine the next day.).

One other thing I'd like to mention. Noah's advocate came by to speak to me for a moment in the waiting area to discuss certain aspect of Noah's program, which they will be deciding upon as a group the next two days, and he said, "We noticed watching Noah's video that his body movement was the best we've ever seen it."

I've been noticing that over the last couple of months, but it is nice to have it confirmed by the professionals.

Beautiful weekend

It was a nice, relaxing weekend here in the Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. The weather was perfect; we heard a great sermon this morning at Chestnut Hill Baptist Church; there was a fall festival in the little downtown area, and Drew's flight landed on time without hassle.

The boys had a great time at the festival with Grandmama and Grandaddy (I was picking Drew up at the airport), and I have a couple pictures of the balloons they picked out. Eli has a purple mustache from the grape drink he had, which seems like it is going to last a while as it refuses to be washed off.

They had a wonderful time watching the acrobats, listening to music, and looking at all the crafty items being sold along the street.

We are happy to have Drew here with us, and we look forward to a great week at the clinic!

Clinic Day 2 -- Friday

Here is Noah having a look at all the wires Dr. Morales had him hooked up to. He wants to see what is happening to him at all times.



Our second day at the clinic was short (unfortunately), but encouraging. Dr. Morales met with us again and hooked Noah up to his advanced equipment to check the rigidity of Noah's muscles. He used electrical muscle stimulation as well as biofeedback to see how Noah's tighter muscles are functioning.

The main problem-muscles are the adductors and hamstrings. He hooked them up to a device that measures their electrical output, in other words (or in simple terms), it takes a certain amount of electric current to tighten any given muscle. This current can be measured by this device, and the tighter the muscle is flexed, the more electricity is used (at least that's the best way my tired brain can explain it).

He did the same thing six months ago, and the good news is that his muscles were looser today than they were the last time he checked. This is a big deal! Real improvement!

The doctor was also encouraged that when given electrical stimulation, the muscles were working in unison on both sides of the body. Instead of giving the long explanation, I'll just say what it means: since the muscles have even function on both sides, there is a great chance that biofeedback will make a positive difference in the function of his legs. Another good thing.

One more piece of good news was that Noah's hip x-ray showed no change from the last one. Yes, we would like to see some improvement, but in a kid like Noah, it usually gets worse and worse. This is still a victory!

Overall a good day at the clinic. After that we went around to do a little window shopping and enjoy the beautiful town of Chestnut Hill. I'll try to post some pictures from that later today or tomorrow.

Day 1 -- Thursday

We had a pretty quick day at the clinic seeing only the one doctor that is going out of town next week -- Dr. Morales. He did a physical evaluation focusing on muscles and joints. He wants to continue aggressive treatment of the hip, of course, and he also wants do some electric stim and biofeedback with his upper body and arms to increase his arm movements. He made some suggestions on some ways to hold Noah that will be better for his hip, which are simple but brilliant. Then he recommended some braces on Noah's feet to help keep them straighter.

This evening, Dr. Morales will spend some time looking over his notes and coming up with a program based on Noah's needs, and tomorrow we will meet with him again to begin learning the program that he wants us to do with Noah.

Hopefully they will also get us in to see someone else so that we won't have quite so much to do next week. And maybe we can get a few pictures then as well.

We made it!

We had a very long drive, which we started at 4:30AM (my father's idea). That lapse in judgement aside (no, it really was a good thing), we made it to Philly in good time, and I think Noah had his best drive yet. He was hardly even stiff when we got here, which was very unusual. Now I am going to bed before I fall over on my keyboard. Before I go, here is some (very poor quality) video of Eli and Noah playing together during the drive to pass the time.