In late October, Luke went back to the rehab hospital for his first repeat video swallow study since his G-tube surgery last summer. His speech therapist had been spending hours per week practicing drinking thickened liquids with him to ensure he could handle this without aspiration. He passed his swallow study with flying colors and was cleared to take all liquids by mouth! It took a good couple of months of intense work with his speech therapist to reteach Luke the suck-swallow pattern since he hadn't had a drop of liquid by mouth in a year and a half. I was starting to get a little nervous that he might not learn to drink liquids again, and one day it finally clicked for him...
To go from having him connected to an IV pole several times a day for all liquid nutrition and hydration to actually being able to give him a straw cup like this has changed our lives (and his!) immensely. The doctors want to keep the G-tube in place throughout the winter season, just to be safe, as there is risk of aspiration again if he were to get really sick. As long as he can go at least 3 months without using the tube at all, we are hopeful that it can be removed late spring or early summer. How nice it will be not to see a hole in his stomach with a big tube sticking out anymore!
Luke continues to get stronger and his standing has come so far in the last few months, especially with the help of his AFOs (ankle-foot orthotics). While I do still have moments of sadness that he is not walking yet, I just remind myself that it will happen, just on his own time. In the meantime, he crawls like a champ and gets around fairly quickly, especially when he sees his physical therapist come in! He's gotten a little feisty and we end up spending much of his PT sessions chasing after him since he knows what's ahead...walking practice!
The very same day that he figured out how to drink liquids through the straw, he started doing a real crawl on all fours (versus the army crawl)!
Notice how he also does a funny yoga-type move as well. We aren't sure what that's all about, but it looks like a good workout for him!
Here he is doing some standing with his physical therapist...
And with his occupational therapist...
While his latest maneuver doesn't thrill me, it takes a lot of strength and proves how much stronger he's become...
And here he is working on walking with Daddy. He needs quite a bit of assistance, but he's starting to figure out the concept of moving his feet and legs...
Just for fun, I have to end with this one last video which will surely make you smile. Enjoy!
AWESOME!!!!!!
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