Next step...

Friday we had the opportunity to bring our littlest guy to an initial assessment with three pediatric therapists. I can't express how impressed we were with the time we spent with them. They were so good with our little guy and communicated to us their observations, concerns, and reasons for different activities. I think I was also more prepared for this meeting in that my expectations were more realistic than they were on Monday--I'm learning, even if it is slowly, but in my defense--this is my child that we are talking about here!! Following the assessment, one of the physical therapists returned and explained how they scored our little guy and shared their accompanying recommendations. It was so good to hear their excitment about the things that he was doing and the progress that we have recently seen. They have assigned us to a physical therapist twice a month in their office and then we will have our own homework too. I LOVE homework like this!! The things that they are asking us to do make sense and we can already see how they will be assisting our sweetie in making progress! YEA!! On the other side of things, we were told that there were a few signs of Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome (TSCS). Interestingly enough, the way to confirm or reject this diagnosis is through an MRI. We were given a short information sheet on TSCS along with the recomendation that we contact our neurologist. After getting home and leaving two messages at our neurologist's office I hit the Internet to learn as much as I could on this potential cause of these challenges. I'm not going to go into detail on it all, but I do know we will be able to handle whatever any of this ends up being.

So, we actually are going to have the MRI done, not just of the brain as had initially been ordered by our neurologist, but of the brain and spinal column. I had to make some calls to the MRI center at Emmanuel as well as to our neurologist (who called me back in person!--I was impressed) to get things in place. If in fact TSCS is our challenge, it is very beneficial to take action as soon as possible to stop further damage to the spinal cord, nerves and associated muscles.

Whew!

I'm actually feeling pretty calm about all of this right now. There are so many other things that could be on our plate that I am thankful for our own set of challenges. It's hard to think that things could be too bad when we see our little guy making as much progress as he is. Just yesterday afternoon he was walking unassisted with a 'walk-along' toy he received for his birthday from Grammy and Grandpa HB. Even though the picture is blurry you can see his big smile!

We were THRILLED and so were each of our boys!

We're going to be okay with all of this. Of course I have my desires for how all of this will turn out, but even if those need to be put aside, we're okay. We are greatly blessed to have each of our "Little Guy Lowes" and I am excited for our family to continue growing together!