Wednesday, September 26, 2012

A list of Updates


School has started and we have made it through a few weeks now!


Zak is at the same school as he was last year. He will remain in the same class through 5th grade. A few kids have graduated and a few have joined. He seems to really like his classmates as usual. I have been hearing wonderful things about the progress he continues to make from his Therapists and Teacher. One of his therapists that has not seen him on land (he does aquatic therapy with her) was very excited to see him walking in his gait trainer (walker for bigger kids) and pushing himself is his wheelchair. He is making such great accomplishments! He really enjoys his friends in other classes too, the 3rd grades read to them and he does sign language and other activities with the 1st graders. He is just getting to be such a big boy!

Callie is in her 2nd year of pre-k with Mrs. Amy. Callie continues to get her schooling at home where the teacher and therapists come to her. The reason we have chosen this option is to keep her healthy with the unknown surgeries ahead of us. All of her teachers/therapists have been very happy with her gains through the summer. Each week I am constantly thinking what happened to our little baby. She truly has gotten to be so big and little miss independent. Although she always has been our independent one. She is doing so many new things lately. The teacher just told me this week that she achieved one of her goals already!

We are so proud of our little babies!!

Medical Updates


There has been a lot of things going on with Callie in the Medical area. Very little with Zak and we pray it will stay that way.

Both kids had their annual special needs clinic appointment in Marshfield where several doctors and therapists get together and do a review of their progress. Everyone was very positive on Zak’s progress. He did end up getting Botox in his legs to loosen the muscles up. This should help in his walking by keeping him flat footed rather than on his tip toes. It should also help in stretching him. So far it has proven to be a success as he is already walking and standing better! Callie also had a positive appointment. We are soon going to be getting her a wheelchair too. This will help in keeping her in the proper seat position instead of a stroller and highchair. She also recently started to experiment with crawling. When she knows you are watching forget it. But when she is playing by herself she takes several steps before starting to roll!

Also, we have been watching Callie closely since she was a year old for her heart. She has pulmonary stenosis, which means the pulmonary valve (Pumps blood to the lungs) is smaller than it should be. She also has the hole in her heart still that many babies are born with. She progressively got worse up until she was a year and has maintained since. She went in at the end of August for her annual appointment which went well, however she moves to much these days to get good images so we elected to sedate her for images. She just had those images last week and her heart is still stable (even a very small amount better – which better is always nice to hear even if it is a small amount). The doctor continues to consult with the Milwaukee heart surgery team as at some point she will need surgery, however we continue to wait.

Also, Callie will be having some other surgeries for the remainder of the year.. I have done a separate post just for that one as there is so much to it.

Chris and Annie


With the little time that remains we have found a little time for ourselves. Chris continues to travel for work so the weeks are always hectic. This past weekend he was able to go duck hunting which is something he was not able to enjoy doing last year. Hopefully he will be able to spend more time out this fall between duck and deer hunting. As for Annie, well she joined her very first 5k run. The girls and her are heading to Madison on Oct 12th for an overnight stay as the run is on Sat. It supports Ronald McDonald house which you all know is very near and dear to our heart as they have provided our family with a place to stay and support throughout the past 7 ½ years.

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