James Update

James had a couple of appointments in Houston yesterday at Texas Children's.

We saw his pulmonologist first. He was pleasantly surprised at how good James' respiratory system sounded. Since James was so sick the last time the doctor saw him, the doc didn't know how healthy James can be. The only thing he commented on is diminished capacity in the lower right lung, which is to be expected since that's where James' stomach sits. Then the doctor ordered a blood-gas so that he would have a baseline to compare to if James gets sick again, so we went to the lab before his next appointment to get that done (after 3 different draws, they finally got a sample that worked).

Next we went to see James' GI doctor. The last time we saw her, we made a plan to get James off one of his meds. The doc was happy to learn that we were able to ween him from it successfully, taking James down to 3 meds on a regular basis (prevacid in the morning and before bed, bethanacol before each meal, & pulmacort nebulizer each morning).

We will continue to see these doctors every 3 months as long as James stays healthy, more frequently if he gets sick. They want to see him healthy for 9-12 months before they try to reduce any more of his medications. We are so thankful that he has been healthy since the end of April. The docs say if he can't stay well, then we'll have to consider surgical options so we're just praying for continued good health here!

Developmentally, James has made a lot of progress in the last 8 weeks or so. He's mastered crawling and loves chasing the cat around the apartment. He can cruise along the couch and has also mastered his walker. He can even walk if you hold both his hands to help him keep his balance. Even though he doesn't talk, he is getting better at communicating with us and we are trying to teach him some simple signs. His therapists are working with him to try and develop more fine motor skills that will help with signing and feeding himself. We are just so happy he's been healthy that all of these developmental steps are just icing on the cake!

Playing

Happy Father's Day! (James is waving)