4Th Birthday

On Tuesday my sweet little guy will turn four. When I think back over this past year I realize just how far he has progressed in such a short time. My hopes for his future are so much more positive then when we began. I can't believe that my boy will be four. Where does the time go.
The official birthday wish list includes a Bob the Builder cake, Elefun Game and something called Roll Over Puppy. The standards of construction trucks and fire trucks stand.
AJ's finally got his speech sessions for the new semester at EMU. He'll be attending twice a week with a new grad student for his therapist. I am really glad that he is able to continue this one on one therapy. While his special education preschool is extremely beneficial with both social skills and speech I feel some of the more technical aspects have been addressed more successfully with one on one therapy.
His appointment with the pediatric neurologist is set for mid-October and should just confirm that we are dealing with Apraxia only but it will be good to be sure.
He seems to have adjusted to the move and all the new changes to his schedule. I am hoping we aren't just going through a honeymoon period and that this relative calm will continue.

Saga of the Quarter Part 2

To continue; We had an x-ray Wed. and the coin Was in the intestines. He passed it later that day. It was, surprisingly ...... a dime! Even the Doctors were surprised. It looked like a quarter on the x-rays although admittedly the coin was on an angle in both films. So unless my son's body is now making change, we are done! Thank the lord for that.
Also thank Him for our new pediatric Neurologist. AJ has an appointment to see the Doctor on Wed. Oct. 15th at 8:30 am. I am very excited and looking forward to his opinions and input on our boys progress and prognosis. It will feel good to know what a specialist thinks and if we are missing anything or on the right track with him.
We went to an open house at the new special ed preschool AJ will begin attending next week. It looks really good and he didn't want to leave. I am working with them to get the bussing situation under control. They aren't sure if they will pick him up without a consistant schedule an AJ's needs to vary due to custody issues. I will be so happy when the details of both this and his speech therapy at EMU are all coordinated.
Things are coming together but September will be a crazy month!

The saga of the quarter! part one

Well on Thursday my adorable almost 4 year old son decided that swallowing a quarter seemed like a good plan. He was with Grandma and ran to her saying his throat hurt. She asked why and he said "I ate moneys" When asked what money he replied "the big one". And the merriment has ensued from there. AJ swallowed a few times and stated "I better now." We of course all met at the emergency room where my son high fived the Dr. , told him he had "monies in my tummy" and laughed when sternly informed he was NOT a piggy bank. He smiled for his xrays and flirted with Everyone! So much for my thought that perhaps a slightly traumatic experience might prevent further such adventures.
The xrays showed that the quarter was in fact in his stomach and we were told that if he didn't pass it in three days to call his doc. for a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist. This is where we are today. It has been 4.5 days due to the holiday weekend- my son has always had an excellent sense of timing things for the worst possible time- and no quarter. I have a call in to the doc and am waiting on an answer. I don't know what I hope. I read on line that sometimes they make you wait 3 weeks before they give up and put them under and scope them. The concern is that the quarter may be too large to pass into the duoendum (opening to the intestines) This at a time when he is starting a new school and is at 5 different places each week. It seems a bit much to ask new teachers to save his stool to be examined for pocket change. He's so irregular and now prides himself on total bathroom independence that we live in fear that he'll go and flush before we can check. Yikes.
On the positive side, when the er doc heard me explaining that he has Apraxia he immediately referred us to a pediatric neurologist. I was so excited. while everything has been going well on the Apraxia front, it would be reassuring to have him examined by a neurologist and be secure in the knowledge that we are doing everything we should and that there are no other surprises lurking.
He has been stuttering a lot lately which initially concerned me greatly but after reading a great article on this on Apraxia_Kids.org I feel it is likely that he is just overloaded with new abilities and information and needs time to take it all in.
I hope all is well for everyone out there and please say a prayer for silver poop!