Updates on Nathan

Thank you all so much for asking about Nathan and for praying for us as we went through these appointments! Just before Christmas, we stopped in Raleigh for all of Nathan's follow-up dr. appointments. The all went pretty well. The pediatric ophthalmologist said that Nathan's glasses were not doing what we were hoping the would do, so he said to stop using them ($300 wasted there!). So, instead of glasses, we have to patch Nathan's left eye for 6 hours a day. The poor kid. For the next four years, he'll have to wear a patch. We can reduce it by 2 hours a day, each year. His left eye is much stronger than the right, so we are trying to strengthen it so that his eyes won't cross.

We also went to his physiatrist to follow up on some of what Nathan's teacher at Orientation was worried about. The dr. basically said that he didn't think that Nathan was having seizures, based on what we explained to him. He told us we could do an EEG, but that if he didn't have any activity during those 24 hours of monitoring, it really wouldn't tell us much. The teacher had noticed Nathan "zoning out" during story time every once in a while. Since it wasn't happening consistently, the dr. felt like it was nothing to worry about. He also said that "story time" would not be a normal "trigger" for seizures... most likely Nathan was bored. :)

The dr. also encouraged us to continue strengthening and stretching Nathan's muscles. He explained that as he gets older, taller, and heavier, it will become more difficult for Nathan to walk. I guess it makes sense, b/c his center of gravity is much higher. It was just very eye opening for me to understand that even though his Cerebral Palsy is not degenerative, his growth could make his "symptoms" more extreme as he gets older. It's that much more incentive to stay on top of our daily routine that we do at home. Nathan is really, really laid back and pretty good about understanding that this is "just part of life." :)

Overall, Nathan's appointments were good. We felt like they cleared some things up for us. The dr. also was not too concerned about Nathan's fine motor skills. They had given Nathan crayons and paper to draw on while we were waiting for the dr. to come in. Nathan was writing his name everywhere; so when the dr. came in, he motioned toward it and said Nathan was fine. In the broad scheme of things, Nathan really only has to know how to sign his name. He said he would focus more on keyboarding skills than actual handwriting skills. He felt like Nathan was fine for his level of Kindergarten and would improve with more exposure to school. Thank you all for praying for us through all of this! Please continue to pray for Nathan.