Love, Austin

Hello everyone!  This is Austin!  Today I turned 18 months old and apparently Mom and Dad think I need to take over a little more responsibility around here!  Ha!  January was quite a month and I really didn't feel good, but thankfully February has been so much better!  I'm doing awesome (or that's what everyone keep saying)!  I do feel better and I've gotten so much stronger over the past few weeks.  I'm up to 9.17kg (~20 lbs 4oz).

Now to the details and medical stuff, Mom reminded me to take it easy on you with the vocabulary!  Back on New Years Eve, I had a colonoscopy and they found some small sores on my bowel.  They started me on a new medication through my g-tube and it started helping right away.  Things really settled down in my bowel and some great things have happened.  I've been able to tolerate my feeding rate going up from 40mL/hr to 44mL/hr in just a few short weeks!  I think I heard Mom and Dad talking about going to 45mL/hr in the morning.  I'm tolerating the increases because my bowel is able to absorb more nutrients and move the food through without making my stomach upset.  Oh yeah and not only is my food getting absorbed better, so is my iron.  My hemoglobin was 10.3 last Monday!  That's back in the normal range!  Whew!

Now that I'm feeling better, I'm cooperating a little more with my OT and PT!  In OT, I'm working really hard on my fine motor skills by putting small objects into containers.  They are challenging me by making the hole barely big enough for the objects.  I've been doing a really good job though!  I had PT today.  My physical therapist told Mom and Dad that I was rolling independently again, able to get in and out of sitting up, climbing with help and going from sitting to standing with help.  My goal this week is moving in and out of sitting.  I showed Mom tonight after school that I can already go from sitting to laying on my tummy!  I'm still working on my feeding therapy.  This is very slow progress for me as I'm pretty scared of new tastes.  I do like sips of ice water and I've started putting some things in my mouth just to get little tastes!  So far it hasn't been too bad, but I haven't found anything I love!  I promise I'll keep trying.

It's Friday so everyone at our house needs to get some extra rest and recharge for next week!  Thank you so much for all your gifts, thoughts and prayers.  We are all very grateful and appreciate your kindness.  You guys definitely know how to make a guy feel loved!  You're a powerful bunch of friends and family!

Love,
Austin