Forced Feeding?

Though Matthew has made dramatic improvements in his eating, he still doesn't entirely grasp the concept. This morning he took a few bites of his peanut butter sandwich, then raised his shirt and tried to put the rest into his feeding port. This is a classic example of the challenges "G-tube" babies experience. From a toddler's logical standpoint, it is easier to tube feed than to bite, chew, and swallow. Hopefully his sense of taste will win him over someday.

Matthew sized Workspace

While in California last month Matthew fell in love with Ali Hazelwood's toddler sized table & chairs. So Grandma Wright got Matthew his own as an early Christmas present. Thank God for Grandmothers!

Crazy About Sunglasses

Matthew loves to play with sunglasses. We had to get him his own because he can be rather rough on the arms. While having lunch recently, Matthew helped me try on his shades so he could yank them off my face.

Speech Therapy

This is Dr. Jill Gertz, Matthew's speech therapist. She is great! She gets herself down to his eye level when they interact to encourage eye contact. Matthew has a good time playing with all of Dr. Jill's toys.

Cardiologist Visit

Matthew was a champ!

The cardiologist said there has been no narrowing ... and the leak is the same as before.

That is fantastic news! We go back for another ECHO in six months.

He said when Matthew goes in for surgery, it will be because of the leak and not the narrowing. He mentioned that the conduits can get some kind of sludge build up.

They rate the leak 1 to 10, and his leak is still a 3.

Doctor said that he'll need a conduit change once it gets between 8 and 10; he said to plan on surgery in about 2 years. We'd been told at Stanford that on average, these little guys need a conduit change every three years. So, that would be about right.

We hope medical technology will advance quickly, so that he won't need to go in (approximately) every 3 years.... maybe they can come up with some new kind of tissue or a bovine or pig valve that will last longer.

Thank you so much for your prayers ... we very much appreciate it!! They worked! :-)

(((Hugs))) to you all.

Oh yeah, we tried to go celebrate at IHOP afterwards, but Matthew pitched a HUGE fit as we were sitting down. We got up and left the building. He screamed all the way home.
We didn't know what the heck was going on.

He's been a perfect angel since we walked in the door.

Football Sunday