I was spoiled this Mother’s Day…I received a lovely poem from Wilson, a pretty “I Love You Because” flower from Olivia, a cool abstract collage from Max and this from Rudy…
Yep, you saw it right! Rudy rolled over for the first time Sunday morning! This is something we’ve been working toward in his therapy and play at home for months so we were all very excited by this milestone accomplishment and Rudy seems pretty pleased with himself too! It’s an encouragement to see progress for sure. Rudy is making progress in all the areas tested by his therapy team but it is slow and sometimes hard to distinguish. Sunday’s milestone is a definite “roll in the right direction”! Interestingly, I had a meeting with the team from Regional Center on Monday to go over Rudy’s 18 month assessment and, for all you “therapy geeks” out there, his Approximate Age Equivalent in the various categories is as follows:
Fine Motor and Perceptual Skills – AAE is 9 months
Cognitive – AAE is 9 months
Language – AAE is 11 months for Receptive Language and 5 months for Expressive Language
Social/Emotional – AAE is 11 months
Self-Care/Feeding – AAE is 3 months
Gross Motor – AAE is 6 months
I’m encouraged…we’re not where I thought we’d be when we started his therapy a year ago but, then again, no one really knew what goals were realistic to set…I feel we’re still a bit clueless and naive about what can happen in the next 6-month assessment period but he’s progressing and that’s all that matters and Rudy’s new rolling trick sure beefs up the motivation to keep moving forward! 🙂
Things on the heart front remain stable. We had our monthy appointment with the SB cardiologist on Friday and nothing has changed which is good news for Rudy’s lungs. At the end of the echo, Dr. Harake said “Well, if we’re still on the same page, I recommend we continue to wait for the pulmonary hypertension drugs to do their work” to which I replied, “Of course…we’re just so anxious to see if they are making a difference” to which Dr. Harake replied, “We’re all anxious to find out”. I was comforted by his sincere, heartfelt reponse…I guess it reminded me that we’re not alone in this wait…that Rudy has a team of medical professionals asking similar questions and if it feels like we’re drifting out at sea sometimes, well, at least we have a network drifting along with us (kind of like our very own version of those AT&T network commercials – or is it Verizon?! Ha) So, we wait.
Many of you have been sweet to ask about my Dad and so I wanted to include a quick update and request for prayer as his latest MRI shows evidence that the cancer is no longer responding to his chemo…new lesions have shown up and because of their location far into the brain, surgery is not an option this time. There may be options, however, and my folks will know more once they meet with Dad’s doctors…we’ll just have to wait and see. Ahhhh “wait” (big sigh)! Although we remain hopeful, the reality of new cancer showing itself is heartbreaking and I ask you to lift my folks up in prayer as the next steps of their journey unfold. ‘Deeply grateful for the comfort that comes through the prayers of many!
Rudy's Beat 