Monday, August 1, 2011

Monday, August 1, 2011





I actually have a good excuse for being a day late this week. If you know me, you know I don't need to have an excuse for being late, I am just really good at it. But today, I have an excuse.

We went back to Ann Arbor today for Caleb's developmental study. Caleb participated in several research studies while he was in the hospital. As part of the studies, they do a follow up at one year to see how the babies are developing. As hard as it is to believe, Caleb is nearly a year old!

We decided to celebrate his first birthday a couple of weeks early. We picked up three birthday cakes to take to the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital to say "Thank You". I made a couple of cards and we delivered them before Caleb's appointment. It is strange to start a card with "Thank you for saving our son's life", but what else do you write? Without the surgery and care he received in Ann Arbor, Caleb would probably not be with us today.

We got to see many of Caleb's nurses when we were there. It was nice to visit and then get to leave! We also got to see two families that we met when we were in Ann Arbor last fall. Gabby got a new heart valve three weeks ago and is still in the hospital and Bowen happened to be visiting the hospital for his routine cardiology appointment.

We went up to the Chapel at the hospital and took care of some serious thanking. It was absolutely overwhelming to sit in the Chapel with Caleb sitting with us. There were many happy tears shed in there today!

Being back at the hospital with Caleb was really strange. It is like how you don't notice your kids are growing until you see them in a different context and realize just how much they have changed. Each day, we know we are lucky to have Caleb, but going back made us remember just how close we were to losing him several times. We heard several "He looks so great for a baby that was so sick" comments today. The more time that we have had to look back on Caleb's first hospital stay, the more we realize how tenuous things really were.

Caleb's assessment went really well. He tested at average to above average in each category. There are no major areas of concern. We asked the doctor performing the assessment if the hospital does a lot of this testing as part of research studies. She said now that they are able to save babies that were previously not surviving (the ones with complex heart defects and those born extremely premature), they are now able to focus on their quality of life. We are glad Caleb was born last year, not 15 years ago!

Other than the Ann Arbor trip, things were pretty calm last week. Caleb did find out that he has a tongue, so that has been a major source of fun. He is constantly clicking it. When you add the tongue clicking to the constant flirting, a trip out in public is a real hoot. He thinks he is quite the ladies' man!

4 comments:

  1. What a great experience for you! Can't believe it has been a year! Love Caleb's outfit! :)

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  2. He looks all cheeks, such a happy baby. Thank-you for taking such good care of him.

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  3. Caleb looks great!!! So glad to hear he is doing so well. Angelo is doing great to. He had is cardio appt on Tues this week too and so far so good. He has to have a scan of his lungs this fall to check oxygen levels and probably another hearth cath (#4) this Jan to ballon the left PA, then we will for sure be in the clear!!!

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  4. What great news! Happy to hear that things went so well for you (and him). Will there be a BIG birthday party for Caleb this year, after all it is quite an accomplishment!

    Kathy S.

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