Celebrating Inchstones: Houston in pictures

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Houston in pictures

Houston trip 2010

This is how Asa had many meals on the road! He preferred to drink his cup in the carseat rather than in a restaurant or hotel room. I'm just thankful he learned to drink from a straw!! No feeding tube on this trip!!

He also enjoyed a fair share of Dum Dum suckers in the carseat! For some reason he kept putting it on his foot and then tasting his foot! It made for some great entertainment!!

Sunday morning outside New Orleans, eating the free breakfast! Asa sucked down his Pedisure from his straw cup (YAY!) and spent the rest of breakfast putting his spoon in the flower center piece! BTW, I love making hotel waffles!

Aquarium in New Orleans

This is when we first got inside. Asa loved the walk through aquarium but it was hard to get a good picture. He could roll right up to this one and really loved it so he put his feet up! Notice the sweaty head...it was HOT!

This is upstairs at the aquarium in front of a school of fish! Asa had gotten sick at this point and the chair was reclined and he was out of it.

Baton Rouge, LA

I was secretly distracting Cade by telling him to pose by various tropical plants. lol

Snuggles in the mornings! Asa and I slept together and Cade and Barry slept together. Turns out Cade talks in his sleep and Asa is a wiggle worm!

After Houston

The mito clinic hands out these "Mito Mike" turtles. His shirt says "slow and steady wins the race". Asa has never liked stuffed animals but he actually took to this one for a while. He even gave him love and put him on his head! I was very impressed!!

This is back in Louisiana at a rest stop. We fed some ducks at this stop!

And this is my best travel advice! If you have a lot of chargers, pack them all on a power strip and charge them in the same place. Then when you are packing up you won't forget one! Cade brought tons of electronics and only played with the DS!

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Asa's story

Asa is the 4th and youngest in this family. We thought he'd come into this world and our lives would flow right along as it had the other 3 times we brought babies into this world.

We were wrong! After a normal pregnancy and delivery, Asa had to be sent to the NICU because he wasn't sucking, blood sugar dropping, floppy muscles, exaggerated startle reflex and jaundice.

He stayed 5 days were he learned to suck and eat enough to come home. He began nursing well but would scream in pain 30 minutes after each feeding. He had so much mucus and drooled so much. He had a terrible rash on his face. He wasn't making eye contact and was not hitting any milestones.

I kept taking him to the pediatrician but got nowhere until his 2 month checkup when he had only gained one pound since birth. That earned him an appt with a pediatric GI and a change to Neocate formula. Odd gasping spells and eye rolling got him into a pediatric neurologist before the GI appt. The neurologist (he was actually the head of the pediatric neurology dept) personally walked us over to the GI clinic and sat us in an exam room. That kinda makes you worry! That is when we really got the ball rolling. Asa was 3 months old.

At 4 months he was admitted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. He stayed 8 days and had a NG tube inserted so we could feed him directly into his stomach. He kept this for 2 months. Also during this time he had an EEG, CT scan, MRI, upper GI endoscopy with biopsy, flex sig, numerous blood tests, a genetics consult, and an ophthalmology consult and many other pokes and prods! So began our relationship with specialist!!

After 2 months on the NG tube, we removed it and tried to get Asa to eat enough to gain weight. He did OK for a little while but by 9 months old, he was fighting each feeding and not gaining weight despite being on Neocate formula at 30cal/oz. The decision was made to have a G-tube put in. The G-tube is a feeding tube that is inserted directly into Asa's belly. He can eat orally but won't so he gets feed into his belly.

Since he was going to have to be sedated for the surgery, it was agreed he should have a muscle biopsy at the same time. By 9 months he had finally began making eye contact. He smiled some but not very social. He was still very hypotonic (floppy) and didn't even have head control. Something was obviously going on with his muscles. All of his brain scans had been normal.

In Nov. 2008, when Asa was 13 months old, we found out the results of the muscle biopsy. Yes, it took 3+ months to get all of the results! He was diagnosed with Mitochondrial Myopathy. He is deficient in Complex IV for all of you medical junkies out there.

What this means is that his cells can't make enough energy to fuel his body....specifically for him, his muscles and GI system, that we know of. If his body has to burn energy to fight off infection, or a stress, then he looses energy in another system. Mito is a progressive disease with no treatment or cure. We try to keep him as healthy and happy as possible. We use the feeding tube to keep him feed so he doesn't have to struggle there. He takes numerous supplements and vitamins in the hope that they will keep him cells healthier. We check his eyes, hearing, heart, kidneys, liver, brain and lots of blood work yearly. Mito can affect any system so it is important to have baseline and watch for changes. He has a GI, neuro, geneticist, optometrist, ophthalmologist, cardiologist, developmental ped, regular ped and a mito specialist.

He gets OT, PT, speech/feeding and a home teacher weekly. He has some sensory issues with touch, sound, taste and texture. This plays into almost all areas of our lives! He is still very hypotonic but gained head control at just over a year (right after we started supplements!). He learned to sit when placed in a sitting position at 18 months. He still can't get into sitting alone. He learned to bottom scoot at just over 2. He does not crawl or walk.

He knows the signs for "moma", "daddy", "more" and "all done". He can show them when prompted but we are still waiting for him to initiate. He waves "bye-bye" and points all the time now. He loves to take a bath and water in general. He has a contagious laugh and can flash the most flirty grin ever!

We learned, with Asa, not take the small things for granted. Each smile, sound, word, bite or even trouble!! You just never know when they might not be so easy to come by or even if you'll have them at all!