Milostones: It's About Time!!

I'm sure that's what you are all saying and I don't blame ya! Really life has been pretty uneventful around here. There was Milo's 4th birthday and Christmas that I missed blogging about (oops). I learned that Milo is very much into routine so changes that occur with holidays are stressful to him. We did have some good experiences this last holiday season but there was some icky behavior to deal with too.

Milo is LOVING school this year. His teachers are great with him! He is talking all the time (even when he is supposed to be listening) although he can be hard to understand sometimes. His pronunciation is the area he needs the most work in. His little lips and mouth just can't quite figure out how to make some sounds but he's getting better every week. He recognizes and names all his letters and numbers 0-9, can spell his name, knows his colors & shapes, recently learned to cut with scissors and is learning to write his name. His IEP review meeting and Parent/Teacher conferences are next Tuesday and I am eager to hear what everyone has to say.

It's the time of year to check-in with most of Milo's doctors. He had a cardiology appointment in early February and for some reason he hates that department and screams the entire time so he earned himself a cardiac MRI under anesthesia to check on his heart and pulmonary arteries. That will be done mid April. His cardiologist feels he is doing well she just wants to be proactive and the MRI will give them a better understanding of his unique anatomy. Today he had a pulmonology appointment and Dr. D was more than happy with how his lungs & airway sound. She will take a quick peek of his airway with a flexable bronchoscope just before the MRI while he is sedated and if everything looks good we'll be talking about stopping one medication, reducing his steroids and maybe even getting rid of our home oxygen, BIG steps! The MRI might also be able to give us good view of the repaired portion of his trachea, BONUS. In January he saw an endocrinologist for the first time because his bones have osteoporosis but no big answers there, not a suprise, just another wait and see. He saw the dermatologist because I thought he might be getting warts on his arm again but the doc assured me it was just bad spots of eczema and to put stronger steroids on them, I've done that a couple times but they seem to be fading on their own. ENT only wants to see if there is a problem so we get to skip seeing her for now. I think that brings us to allergy. I asked to have his blood tests repeated to see if the numbers had gone down after 3 years of avoiding major catagories of food. His numbers have come down significantly so that is wonderful news. The appointment with Dr. A isn't until the end of March but I called to check on the results :0) Hoping for some food challenges this summer and Milo being able to eat some new foods. On the topic of allergies, I found a method of potentially eliminating allergies using accupressure techniques that sounds very promising. Milo has had 2 sessions with an accupuncturist (no needles though) and so far I've seen some positive results with him. I promise to write more about this soon, it deserves an entry all to itself!

If you have made it this far I wanted to share a couple of photos with you. Four years ago this week Milo spent his first week outside of a hospital. It was short lived, just 7 days and some of those were not a ton of fun. I did get some great pictures though!