Parker is seizure free for 4 weeks as of today! He's growing at a normal pace according to our pediatrician, Dr. Parkerson, and he is the sweetest, happiest kiddo. Leah enjoys the days back at the office with her co-workers and Parker enjoys his days with Chessa, his nanny. Parker learns something new everyday, from slowly figuring out how to smile, laugh and jabber to quickly playing with his toys and figuring out that he has feet.
Leah and I went back and forth with our neurologist for a couple of weeks to get Parker medicated properly. He takes 1 medication 3 times a day which is prescribed for typical epilepsy. He takes another medication every morning, which will eventually be weened out. That prescription immediately stopped the clusters of seizures he was having. They believe that the fluid build up on the outside of the brain was causing the clusters, which the original medication wasn't intended to prevent. I'm assuming that we will get rid of the second medication after the external fluid recesses. Regardless, we are in a good spot.
We had one stint of sickness throughout the house that put Leah, Parker and myself all out of business for half of a week, but Parker was surprisingly content considering the circumstances. Luckily we only took one quick trip to Dr. Parkerson to make sure everything was under control. Since then, we've had his 4 month check up where he weighed 13.8 lbs and was in the 30th percentile in most categories in respect to 1 month preemie babies. Obviously, his head is topping the regular charts, but that's too be expected.
Early Childhood Intervention, ECI, came out for an interview and will be supporting Parker with Physical Therapy at our house twice a month. According to the standardized tests, he is testing as a 3 month old in regards to his fine motor skills and a new born when it comes to gross motor skills (primarily because the size of his head is holding him back from the next steps). Parker didn't respond to them ringing a bell, which is the standardized test for cognitive ability, so he ranked as a new born there. As the therapist was holding Parker, talking back and forth with him, making him laugh, ect...she told us that the standardized test for cognitive ability couldn't take into account for his ability to interact on this level and to take the results with a grain of salt.
The next 3 months will be busy with multiple appointments now that he's getting close to his 6 month mark. We hope to have more information from the doctors about his vision, hearing, head shape, and status of the shunt.
Leah, Parker and I want to thank you all for the continued support and prayers. We can't wait for him to meet more of you in 2012!!
Cheers,
Dave
So happy to read this great news about Parker! He's a cutie and I can't wait to meet him :)
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