To catch you up........

A recap of the past 2 years........

Joseph born May 14th, 2006 (Mother's Day)

August 2006
Jojo had what is called stridor (high pitched gasping for air type of noise heard when he would inhale) ENT diagnosed laryngomalacia,(floppiness in the cartilage in the airway specifically the voice box) acid reflux, fluid in both ears. He started him on Zantac for the reflux and said we would monitor the laryngomalacia, he may outgrow it.

November 2006
Jojo was sleeping horribly. He would wake 6-7 time per night from now until 7 or 8 months from now. Still fluid in ears, still having stridor.

April 2007
ENT still concerned with sleep problems, suspects apnea. Overnight sleep study confirms both obstructive and central (nervous system) apnea. He was stopping breathing 9 times per hour. Scheduled for surgery.

May 2007
Surgery at Children's Hospital. His adenoids were removed and tubes were placed in both ears.

Summer 2007
Sleeping issues starting to get improve. Still something wrong, he doesn't seem comfortable and we are battling with him to eat. There is a lot of choking, gagging etc. He is now losing weight.

Fall 2007
Decide to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. Orders a whole battery of tests and schedules more procedures. He will have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy with biopsy.

December 2007
Has procedures done at beaumont. Dr. finds he has horrible erosions from acid in his esophagus and some allergic disease in his small intestine. Starts him on Prevacid very large dose twice a day.

February 2008
I've been noticing for some time weakness in his legs and his unsteady gait when he walks. Falls down and gets hurt frequently. Also has been concerned about his lack of verbal language. He says mama and dada and makes very limited sounds. He is very quiet and has a very serious look and his face. We notice he also doesn't keep his mouth closed much, it hangs open. We decide to have him evaluated at Early Intervention. His language understanding tests far above his age, however he is almost 2 years old and his expressive language is in the 9-12 month range. It took 3 seperate hearing test appointments before he was cleared of conductive hearing loss problem.
He will start speech therapy 2 times per week and a feeding group once a week through MISD.

Spring 2008
He is finally gaining weight. He has an appointment with a pediatric neurologist who confirms my suspicions. He is diagnosed with hypotonia (low muscle tone) and a neurologic condition called apraxia. He is scheduled for an MRI which be needs general anesthesia for and another whole round of tests, and bloodwork. Whew. Here we go again. MRI is normal, thank God! He is at therapy 3x per week and is now going to be evaluated at Beaumont for therapies as well. The results of that evaluation are the same as the previous. He will need intensive speech therapy. We are put on a waiting list at the end of March. He will also need physical therapy and occupational therapy.

June 2008
Joseph started PT 2x a week and OT 2x a week. We are still waiting on speech.

July 2008
Joseph will likely begin to go to the Kaufman Children's Center for speech and language which is in West Bloomfield soon. We are going to have pay out of pocket since our insurance will not cover this facility. (I'm still working on that!) We are still waiting on Beaumont to get him in for speech, however the Kaufman center specializes in children with apraxia. We have a decision to make. Where should he begin his speech therapy?

So in addition to his 4 sessions of therapy per week in Royal Oak we will go 2x per week to West Bloomfield. He is by far the busiest two year old I know.