Progress

It's been a lng time since I posted and I apologize to anyone who mau have been waiting on the edge of their seat. Briefly, I've been tired, I've been away, and I've been tired. Yes, I know said I was tired twice, but I've been very tired. My trip away was a long weekend to Dallas for the American Library Association Mid-winter Meetng. It was nice to see some friends and I am especially thankful for a very nice dinner and conversation with Christina, my former supervisor at Fairfield University. I can't recommend Dallas as a destination, but Wild Salsa served a delicious meal and our server was excellent. I missed Will for the three days I was gone, so I brought home almost $1,000 worth of books. Around one-third are children's books and all were either free or deeply discounted.

"Why is this entry titled 'Progress'?", you ask. Will is advancing, slowly, but surely. His second EEG showed that his medicine is keeping at bay the electrical surges in his brain that likely caused his seizures. His MRI scan showed his thin corpus colosum (the part of the brain that separates the left and right hemispheres) has gotten thicker and his nerves have begun to develop myelination, a protective sleeve around them. Think of an electrical wire; the myelination is the equivalent of the wire's insulation and helps the nerve impulses go to their proper destinations. His neuro-ophthalmologist was impressed with his attention and ability to follow an object.

He loves school and seems to have a friend. Cristian brings Will's favorite toy to him when he gets placed in his chair. Last week, his physical therapist reported that he took a few steps with assistance and his feeding therapist called to say he'd accepted a few offerings of pudding without drooling it back out. He has even begun sleeping flat on his back, cradled by a special "mattress" called a Versa Form positioning pillow. It fits in his crib and is filled with polystyrene beads. We mold it to fit Will and remove the air with an extraction pump. He has even been sleeping (mostly) soundly while fighting a mild cold this week.

We practiced using Will's new mobility or transit chair (okay, the Zippie TS is a wheelchair, but we don't like calling it that) this weekend. It's better for Will than the stroller we've been using, but it's a lot more complicated, using nine (!) more buckles. It's also heavier and while it folds, it's still large and bulky. We will have to practice more before we're confident using it alone and using it for travel by car will require scaling down our packing. Using it for air travel worries me.

All in all, Will is doing better and he continues to get great support from those who care about him: his doctors, therapists, teachers, friends, and family. We're blessed to have the help we get from everyone!