Busy Week

This week has been a really busy week with appointments for Caden. On Monday, an infant development specialist from Easter Seals came to evaluate Caden. Easter Seals is contracted through Alta CA Regional Center to provide this service for us. The Regional Center provides free therapies for children birth to age three. It's a wonderful program and we are so happy to be a part of it.

The infant development specialist evaluated Caden in many areas. He definitely has some delays, not a big surprise considering he spent the first two months in a hospital without the ability to do many things. For now, we will probably see this specialist once or twice a month for the next few months. Once Caden gets a little older, she will start coming more often, probably weekly, to make sure he gets all the help he needs to develop “normally.” I am happy to have this service and look forward to starting.

Then, on Wednesday, Caden had an appointment with a pediatric surgeon regarding his g-tube. This was the surgeon that the ER doctor had talked to when we had to have the foley catheter placed. She had wanted us to come in so she could put the Mic-Key button back in. However, we had seen the pediatric gastroenterologist on Friday and she had put one in already. It was smaller than the original one we had, but we were so happy to have an actual g-tube back. So, when we saw the surgeon, there wasn't much for her to do but she decided to try to put in the larger size we had started with. Luckily it went in easily and she didn't have to dilate the hole. And, she decided to put silver nitrate on the granulation tissue around the opening of the hole where the g-tube goes in. It helps stop the growth of more scar tissue. It burned and caused him considerable discomfort, poor baby! Other than that, it was a short appointment and we headed home.

On Thursday, a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding therapy came to evaluate Caden. She works through the Regional Center also. Because we don't know yet whether or not Caden is still aspirating, there isn't much she wants to do yet with feeding. However, she wanted to start us on some pre-feeding things to prepare him for more oral feeds. He doesn't reach for toys yet or bring them to his mouth so she wants us to do it for him. She wants us to take toys with different textures and feels to them and put them in his mouth for him. Rub them on his cheek and face and on other areas of the body as well. The idea is that by exposing him to different textures in his mouth, it will help pave the way for food when the time comes. We won't see her again until toward the end of May, after we have the next swallow study done. But at that point, we will be working with her weekly on Caden's oral feedings. That is assuming he gets an all-clear in regards to aspirating, which is what we are praying for!

And, lastly, on Friday, an RN who works for Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), came to assess Caden as well. SCOE also offers free services for infants birth to three with developmental delays or medical issues. He talked to me about the program and took a health history on Caden. I think it is something where he will come check in on us periodically and make sure we are doing okay. It would be nice to have so we'll see how it all works out with coordinating the services from all the various agencies. We are so grateful for the services that are out there and available to us. Sometimes it's a matter of knowing what the resources are so you can ask for them. After next week's planning meeting on Thursday with our service coordinator from the Regional Center, I should have a pretty good idea of what services we will have in place for Caden. Several more appointments await us next week so I'll update more then.