It is hard to believe that two months since Karter's surgery could have possible gone by so fast. I am happy to report that Karter remains seizure free, Praise The Lord! We are so thankful for this and also enjoy watching the new things happen before our eyes each day. What a great new chapter this has been!
Karter continues to roll to his side to get the toys that are on his mat. He has started to also play on his side at times. At this point he is only interested in rolling to his left side, but we are extremely please with his efforts. He is grabbing for toys more purposefully each day and his right hand has become much more controlled. We are noticing that his left hand has also started to come under much better control. Although he does not use it as controlled as the right one, it is coming slowly each day.
Last week, Karter's entire team of therapists and myself met to put together an IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan). The meeting is meant to get everyone who works with Karter together to brainstorm and input goals, progresses and strategies for Karter at home and at school. It was a great meeting; we are so blessed to have such a great team of people that work together with Karter!
One of the things that we talked about at the meeting and something that I felt was really important, was that Karter have time during at least one of his circle times at preschool, to work on his independent sitting. We strategized about a few ways this would work. One of the things we talked about was getting Karter a supportive seat so that he could sit on his own at circle with his peers. Tuesday, Sandy (our wonderful physiotherapist) visited Karter at preschool and brought a couple seats to try out. He had a lot of success with one called a 'Seat2go'. When I picked him up that day all the teachers including his one to one support and his Supported Childcare Consultant, raved about how amazing this chair was and that it would be great to get him one. That started my quest and research for this chair.
Kurt and I had decided that we would use money from Karter's fund and put it towards the chair, after all, it was something that he will truly benefit from at home and in the classroom. On Thursday, I had an email from someone sharing that the Lord had laid it on their heart to purchase the chair for Karter. I continue to be humbled by the way God takes care of Karter's needs and how the army of people that are around us love and support our special little boy and in turn show their love for us in such unbelievable ways. I am moved to tears and humbled by it daily! So, I will be ordering the chair for Karter and he should have it next week (or as soon as I can pick it up from the US - JW, I am having it shipped to you ;-) ).
Since the New Year, things have been really unsettled and our routine has been non-existent. Karter has been in class only a few times this month. Currently, we are in Vernon because our house renovations are not yet complete. This month has been full of moving, packing and renovations. Karter has been bounced around from room to room, sleeping in closets, on the floor and in many different rooms. He has always been a pretty easy going kid, but all these changes were bound to effect him at some point. For Karter, it has been effecting his sleep. He has been napping little or not at all (which could be just his age and I am ok with that) and he has been waking up between 4 and 5 am. I am doing my best to set up a better routine for him while we are away and work at getting him back to his normal sleeping patterns, but I would ask for your prayers that Karter's sleep patterns would return to normal. The lack of sleeps makes both of us just a tad bit irritable ;-)
Karter will be going in for an MRI on the morning of Wednesday Feb 3rd, followed by an afternoon appointment with the Neurologist and Neurosurgeon. These appointments are routine post surgery follow up. I am both excited and nervous at the same time. Last time, the post surgery appointment was a breaking point for me. I went in thinking Karter was doing so exceptionally well only to hear the disappointment in the doctors voices when he had not reached some very basic stages that they had hoped he would have at that point. Seeing the progress we have thus far, I would be surprised to hear the doctors disappointment, but I would be lying if I did not say it was not playing out in the back of my mind. No matter what, we are thankful for what we see. Quality not quantity. And no matter what anyone says, we are living and watching a real life miracle play out before our very eyes and we are so thankful.
