Appointments

Drake had two evaluations this week. The first was his bi-annual clinic at CCS. I thought he was seen by a developmental pediatrician there, but it turns out she is a phsyatrist. At any rate, she was the one who 6 months ago told us she thought Drake could "outgrow" his delays and sent us all into that mind-place where miracles happen. I remember being more realistic and thinking "how do you outgrow a brain injury?", but left feeling happy that she felt so positively about Drake and his future development.

This time she was also very positive, but did note the high tone in his knees and ankles that she said she didn't notice so much before. She noted his preference for w-sitting. She noted neurological patterning that would most likely be with him for life. But she also noted how his reflexes are in the normative range, most primitive reflexes are gone, his range of motion is within a good functional range. She noted what everybody notes about Drake, how motivated he is to move, how cheerful and social he is, how great is is that he loves books so much. She feels very strongly he will be an independent walker. Her prognosis: rehabilitation potential good.

Three days later we say a developmental pediatrician who hadn't seen Drake since January. He was rolling and prop-sitting then. She was so excited to see him come crawling down the hall. The first part of the appointment was with her colleague who ran a battery of tasks to measure cognitive, speech and motor skills. Like other evaluations he's had, his social/emotional and cognitive skills are right on track, but surprisingly she put speech at 21 months, which is within normal range. His speech therapist put him at 12-15 months a month or so ago. I felt she was being generous with some of her tests - like if she asked where the duck was on a page in a book and he touched just that page, not the duck, she counted that as correct.

Overall, a great appointment though. She also thinks Drake will walk on his own one day, he is so motivated to move. She told us to keep up the calories as he burns so many moving around. She really wants us to work on more standing, both for weight bearing through the legs for bone building and for preparing to walk. The thing is, Drake hates to stand. He's like, what can I do here? He wants to move. He has places to go.