Lots has been happening here. First and most important, Courtney had a swallow study yesterday. Her two speech therapists wanted one before they did any more therapy. They wanted to see if she needed more therapy and if so what for. Wouldn't you know that kid sailed through her test! Remember, that means swallowing cherry flavored barium. But, guess what?! She passed! Meaning she was able to handle thin (non-thickened, regluar) liquids! And her pallet was working really really well for the first time! So, it looks like the therapy has worked! Later that afternoon her speech therapist called and said that it's time to discharge her! Whoo hoo!
I can't tell you how good this all feels! She was diagnosed with this swallowing issue when she was 8 weeks old or around there. And for the last few years it really felt like all we did was treat the symptoms and no one was interested in working towards resolving the problem. They kept telling us the problem should resolve itself as she grew up, but every time she had a swallow study it was the same results. It really started to feel like she would always have this problem.
Things all changed when I refused another swallow study for her around age 18 months. I told her pediatrician that I didn't want to bother since we always end up with the same results, and all we do is treat the symptoms. That was when the pediatrician sent us to Children's Hospital in Denver. That crew that did the swallow study was the one who suggested she sees a pulminologist. The pulminologist was the one who worked hard to find the root of the problem and to get her into therapy.
We started her in therapy in July last year, speech therapy that is. She did really well for a while, we saw improvements. But then she plateaued. That was when we discovered how weak her core muscles were and we needed psychical therapy to strengthen those. Once we started working on that, she started improving her oral motor muscles as well.
It's been a long road. So, to get the news yesterday that she was able to come off thickener, and that her pallet looked to be working properly, well, I can't even describe the feeling of happiness and excitement! For the first time walking out of a swallow study I had tears of joy in my eyes, instead of tears of sadness! I know Courtney doesn't understand how big this is, or how exciting, but boy as a mom...there aren't words.
Kasey had her one year old party this weekend. That made it feel so real that she is now one. That makes me sad. But, kids grow up, not much you can do! She had a great time, had little sleep, but she did amazingly well!
She is changing so fast now! She is starting to walk more and more! And when she does she is also walking further and further. So, I can't believe it, but she is going to be a big time walker and give up the crawling any day now!
Kasey is really into using silverware now. She is enjoying using a fork to stab her food and trying to get it into her mouth. It's quite cute and she is doing a pretty good job at figuring it out!
We took the girls to get some professional pictures taken for Kasey's first birthday. We tried a new place (since our old place closed suddenly due to bankruptcy). We were quite happy. It's about the same price, but you get more pictures, so overall we were happy with the result and we will use them again.
Looks like we will be selling our dooh domain. Hubby got a really nice offer to sell it. I think we are going to go ahead and sell it. It's going to be a lot of work for Hubby, but we constantly get offers to purchase it, and this is the best offer to date. That means that our dooh.com emails will be going away. Hubby has had the domain for about 14 years, so it's going to be a big change.
So, while we have a ton of adorable pictures I would like to post here, it just makes it more difficult for Hubby and the changes if I post yet more pictures. So, I am going to just tell you all you can currently go to www.dooh.com and later it will be www.kirouac.org.
Also our emails will be changing to ending in kirouac.org instead of the dooh.com.
So, I guess I will end the post here. Hope everyone is well!
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