Parker doin' his thing.
Hanging out with his cousin, Landry.
Reagan, Landry and Parker being silly.
For those of you that don't already know (which may not be a lot of you at this point), our son Parker has
VACTERL Association. Born with it; will have it forever! But, if you know him, you know that he doesn't give a flip about VACTERL; he has much more important things to do. We try not to worry about it too much, either, and just enjoy life the way he does.
So, in the midst of running, riding scooters, playing with his twin sister, Reagan, and doing other I'm-almost-2-years-old-things, Parker attends specialist appointments to get some things checked out.
(He has the V, A, R, and L physical anomalies associated with VACTERL, which you can read more about over at this post) To maintain normalcy for both kids, Reagan always comes with us and she is always supportive, sweet, and concerned.
Updates on Parks:
First, Parker had a VCUG and bladder ultrasound done on February 13th and we then saw his urologist to receive the test results the same day. Drum roll please: Parker's kidney reflux has completely resolved, we have no follow-up appointments with the urologist, we stopped his daily prophylactic antibiotics that he had been taking everyday since birth, and the doctor told us just to keep in touch if we ever had any issues. PRAISE.THE.LORD!
Parker on the way home from the tests/appointments on February 13th.
Sacked out!
Last Wednesday (exactly a month later), we had a spine xray and follow-up appointment with Parker's Orthopaedist ... and it was "more of the same - which is good!" Basically, his scoliosis (which is caused by his 2
hemivertabrae) has not progressed since his last xray in August. Since children grow the fastest within their first 2 years of life, it is great that his spine has not changed during this time.
Of course we always want to speculate towards the future and ask the doc what he thinks will happen within the next few years ... "No change is a good thing ... we'll do another image in 4 months ... and we will see you that often until he is about 5 years old ... then we will slow down and do an xray about once a year ... and then when he hits his teenage growth spurt we will see him more often and follow him more closely ... so, you basically belong to us until he is about 18!"
So, we took that info and dialed it down a bit: Parker is doing well - actually, great! - right now, and for that we are truly blessed and thankful.
One day at a time, momma ...
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We will now resume our regularly scheduled activities:
play, play and more play.
