Cam had a swallow study done on Monday. Cam did so well eating at The Grace Center this year, I wanted to be certain that he was doing as well swallowing as I felt he was. Because he has so many problems handling secretions (saliva, etc.), there is always a concern that he could aspirate some of the food into his lungs which would be extremely bad. Well, he didn't eat very well during the test, but they saw enough to agree that I should continue feeding him! We are going to begin working with Speech Therapy at Richland working specifically on oral motor skills as well as feeding. He has always had a strong cough which has enabled him to clear his airway if something went down wrong. He also has never gotten a pneumonia when I have fed him (knocking on wood!!). These things are definitely in his favor as far as feeding goes.
So, we are continuing with the feedings we started working on at The Grace Center and he is doing really well! Today, Cam ate a 1/2 of a container of Stage 1 sweet potatoes! This is so huge for him. He is swallowing it very well and lost very little of it. I think I may have already said this in another post, but he really just tasted stuff last year when we did feedings at The Grace Center. What he is doing now is actually eating! Please say a prayer that this continues and we can get him eating more. I know a lot of you may be wondering if this could mean we might get rid of the g-tube some day, and the answer is that we just don't know. The main thing we want to be sure of is that Cam gets the nourishment that he needs to be healthy. Having the g-tube insures that if he did start eating again, but didn't eat enough, he could still get what he needs. But, I guess you never know.
Erika enourages Cam as he walks up the hallway at The Grace Center
Cody is in the lead followed closely by Jakob who seems to have a little Dale Earnhardt, Sr. in him (just a little bump draft!) and Cam is bringing up the rear!
Another thing we have continued working with is Cam's new set of "wheels" as Clark calls them. Cam's new walker is a hit! He love spending time with it and has begun discovering new parts of the house. The majority of his time is spent in our living room. Well, with the walker, he has begun cruising the kitchen as well! His new thing is checking out the refrigerator magnets. He is also starting to work on pulling the hand towel off of it's perch. The other two boys do that all the time and it drives us crazy. I was hoping that he would pull it off so I could leave it on the floor for Clark to find. Clark would then fuss about it being on the floor and ask who did it. I wanted to be able to tell him, "Cam did!". I think that will happen soon, he is really trying! Another new thing he did today was to run in his walker! He covered the area of our small kitchen in about two good steps! He was so excited he was just laughing, which of course made me laugh. But, probably the best moment was all 5 of us standing in the kitchen right after Clark got home from work. I couldn't help but think how amazing that moment was. Just our family standing together in the kitchen. If Cam has done nothing else, he has really made me appreciate the small miracles God has allowed us to witness though Cameron.
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