"A Different Kiddo"

Caleb had a perfect day today! We started our morning w/ his 6 month neurology apt. She had not seen him since December and could not get over the difference! She kept looking at her notes and said "I was worried about him in December" and things like "his tone improved, its not supposed to do that". She was thrilled Caleb is doing so well and said that if I would have bought him to her today for the first time she would tell me that Caleb did not need a neurologist. She said that Caleb is a different child. She felt that it had to be the cord blood, that a kiddo does not advance this much in 6 months, and tone doesn't change this much at all!. I got hopeful that we would get released form our first doctor but... she wants to see him in six months, for mutual benefits, She can check on Caleb's progress to make sure he is still doing fabulous and she wants to see for herself what the cord blood is doing.

I also got the "official" call from Cincy today and as suspected he did perfect :). Well not perfect he does have some pretty bad reflux, but lots of kiddos have that and so what his is a little worse than normal, if that's the only thing we have we'll take it. All of his biopsy's came back normal and they confirmed that he is no longer aspirating. They even noted that they talked about how far he came since they first met him in Feb.

It is such such a good feeling for Nick and I that lots of prayers, hard work, doctor apts, therapy apts etc.. fixed something that most didn't think was fixable. I still remember the doctor telling me when Caleb was 9 weeks old that Caleb had Mild CP, he would walk, talk and go to college but he would probably be walking with braces and have to learn to manage a lot. I went back and forth with him on why he couldn't overcome vs. manage. He is the same doctor who was the first to tell me 3 weeks after that, that that in theory you can "fix" a brain injury by teaching the 50% of the brain that most of us don't use to take over what the "broken" part can't do, therapy got Caleb so far then we hit the inside issues and Duke came into play. I am so thankful he failed that 4th swallow study so horrendously b/c if he hadn't, his doctors wouldn't have flipped, I wouldn't have worked my butt off to get him do Duke and he would not be where he is today. The cord blood did fix the "in-side" issues as we hoped but it also helped the outside issues beyond belief. The wibble wobble we didn't want to see before is easier to remember now that he is OK and looking back at old pictures, we are like "wow" no wonder they were worried he really was low tone in the trunk (low trunk tone is what indicates neurological).

CALEB IS 100% OK....YEAH