| Later updates | Aaron update 121 |
| Subject: Aaron update 121 Date: Thursday, June 26, 2003 7:32 PM From: Kevin Quick To: Aaron Update List We had our monthly pulmonologist visit in San Francisco today. Aaron weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces, which means that he continues to gain weight at a pretty good rate. His lungs sounded good, and everything seems fine, although the pulmonologist did surprise us by saying that Aaron’s “rather tight muscle tone” could be an indication of mild CP (cerebral palsy). She said that it’s possible that the cerebral part of Aaron’s brain could be telling his muscles to tighten up more than they should, and she’ll be arranging for Aaron to receive some physical therapy to help relax his muscles. A physical therapist will probably visit us at home, and teach us some exercises to do with Aaron, to help flex his muscles and get his brain to relax them more. Of course, we weren’t thrilled with the doctor’s thoughts on this; we’d thought that Aaron was just fine. We hadn’t had any inkling that Aaron’s muscles might be too tense; he seems perfectly fine and relaxed with us when he’s at home. At the doctor’s office, after being weighed on a cold steel scale, and after being poked and prodded, ears examined, tongue squashed with a tongue depressor, a cold stethoscope placed on his chest and back, etc., of course he was tense, and he cried, and was quite fearful. Kathleen and my (very unprofessional) prognosis is that Aaron was just tense and stressed from his doctor’s visit. In about two months, Aaron will have a major test done at the hospital in San Francisco, which will test his lung development. He’ll have to be sedated for this test, and it looks like it will be an all-day affair. The pulmonologist said that now that summer is here, we can take Aaron out a little bit more, but she still recommended that we avoid crowds and young kids. Then, come this fall, she said that we should retreat back into more of a quarantine mode, as the cold and flu germs become more prevalent again. Aaron was great to travel with today. He took the six hours of driving in stride, and was very, very good. He gave lots of smiles to the waitress in the restaurant that we stopped at on the way home. It seems like everyone who sees him asks, “how old is he?” which, of course, leads into some interesting conversations. In general, Aaron continues to do very well. He seems to be doing everything that a baby of his corrected age (and don’t ask, “how old is he now?”, because it’s been a long day, and answering that question takes a lot of mental gymnastics!) should do, as far as we can tell, and he’s just a sweetie. He has a bit of an independent streak in him; he’s happy entertaining himself much of the time, and his favorite seating position is sitting straight up on our laps. He loves to sit up and look around, absorbing everything he can about his new world. At the same time, he has a nice, gentle, sweet spirit, and he’s just a joy to have around. He interacts with us more and more each day, it seems, and his ever-increasing smiles and giggles just melt us. (The attached photo caught him in one of his more serious moments.) Oh, and he sleeps all night every night now, too. Here’s a picture that I took of Aaron last night. As you can see, we’re bringing him up right, teaching him how to work the TV. He likes cartoons, mostly, but like most guys, I guess, he’s happy just surfing the channels, too. Love, Kevin, Kathleen and Aaron |
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