All Things Ethan

October has been a big month for Ethan, medically speaking.  So far, he has met his 4th occupational therapist in two and a half years, contracted hand, foot, and mouth disease, sat patiently through hearing and vision checks, gotten his flu shot, and had his yearly check-up with his orthopedic surgeon.  Not to mention our normal routine of development and speech therapies!

All of the above, however chaotic it has made my life feel, has proved that Ethan is growing and developing at an amazing rate.  In fact, a nutritionist (who has no prior history with Ethan's case) actually told me that he had gained TOO much weight in the past three months.  Thankfully, she followed it up with "but since he's below the 50th percentile, it's OK".  I was about two seconds away from going all Mama Bear on her before hearing that.  That reasoning may not work for much longer, though; Ethan is climbing the growth chart and, as of that weight check with the crazy nutritionist, had gone from the 25th percentile to the 40th!

Grow, baby, grow.

*******

Aside from the stupid virus, Ethan has been incredibly healthy.  That one did a number on him, though.  He's had hand, foot, and mouth one other time before, but this time it was a doozy.  When Ethan turns down Taco Bell (don't judge me), you know something's wrong! It took about a week for him to fully recover, and all is well now.  He was so sick last winter, as a result of the "let him live" mindset, and I'm hoping he'll benefit from a strengthened immune system this cold and flu season.

Getting some love from his Bubbie after a particularly rough night.

*******

Believe it or not, Ethan is only about 5 weeks away from starting the referral/evaluation process for our public preschool program.  He has been served by the Children's Developmental Services Agency (CDSA) here in Raleigh since he was 10 weeks old, but those services stop at 3 years of age.  If needed (as determined by an IEP team), our public school system will step in and start serving him where CDSA leaves off.  The process for that begins around three months before the third birthday, and we're almost there! He has already been assigned a case manager, and our first meeting is scheduled for November 30th.  As a former special education teacher, I have so many thoughts and feelings about this whole thing, which will be making their way to the blog soon.  For now, let's just leave it at, when in the world did this happen?!

*******

Tuesday morning brought about a visit with Dr. F., Ethan's orthopedic surgeon, and it went exceedingly well.  For starters, I typically loathe going to this particular clinic because it always seems to be running behind schedule.  However, we were in and out within an hour and a half, including x-rays of his left arm, so that alone made me a happy mama.  Add to that the fact that Ethan's x-ray has remained unchanged from a year ago (even without wearing a brace) and I could have skipped out of there! The content smile that spread across Dr. F.'s face, as he watched Ethan play in the exam room, wasn't too shabby either.  We got another 1-year pass, and Dr. F.'s permission to forego splinting his arm for now.

I'll take it.

*******

Life is good.  God is great.  And all His people said...