Catching Up With Tobias

Catching Up With Tobias

First of all, sorry it has been so long since I have updated everyone on Tobias.  There has been a lot of things going on that I need to catch you up on! There are quite a few things, so I am going to categorize them so we don't get lost. :)

EYES

First things first, we had his optomology appointment yesterday and I was so nervous!  At his last eye appointment 6 months ago, the doctor told us Tobias was far sighted and will need glasses starting at age 2.  His dad and I aren't comfortable putting him in glasses until he shows us signs of not seeing clearly or just verbally tells us something is blurry.  But at Friday's appointment, the doctor  said his far sightedness had actually improved! Which I didn't know is a common thing...He said it was to be expected because he eyes are getting larger.  He also said his eye closer is a lot stronger, so we do not have to put eye ointment on his eyes anymore when he sleeps. Over all the consensus was that his eyes are looking great and there wasn't a need for glasses anytime soon. 

HAND

Tobias's second hand surgery has been scheduled for September 13, yes, in a couple of months!  It's coming up so fast, but I am very happy we are able to get it taken care of before his little brother arrives in November.  I am extremely anxious for this surgery because the surgeon has said this will be harder than his last one.  His ring and pinky finger are completely webbed, which no other fingers she had to work with were that extreme.  She said his veins have formed in a zig zag, attaching to both fingers.  So cutting those will be difficult.  But I have complete faith Dr. Workman can do it.  She is amazing and we are so pleased with the first surgery she did on that hand.

Another new occurrence with his hand is that his surgeon has been wanting us to work with it and try and see if we can help Tobias grab objects by bringing his pinky and thumb together.  Right now he grabs some things, but he pinches them between his thumb and index finger.  If we can not get him to grab items the way she would like to see it then she will consider a 3rd surgery.  :( That surgery is a tendon surgery.  She will take a tendon from his ring finger and put it in his thumb to give it more range of motion.  But non of that will be decided yet...

FEET

A month or so ago, I started noticing Tobias was moving more and more while his braces and bar were on.  (If you are not sure what I am talking about, he was born with clubbed feet.  I have a post all about it) He was now pulling to stand and even cruised from toy to toy while in them.  I emailed his doctor at Phoenix Children's Hospital and he said we could go ahead and knock him down to wearing them for 14 hours! :). We are hoping that when he see him in August, he will tell us he can go down to 12 hours a day, which is the least amount of hours he will be required to wear them until 3 years old.  

His dad and I have been working on his walking with him and we noticed he sometimes drags his right foot.  But other times he doesn't.  It happens more when he is tired and pushing his walker.  When he walks while holding our hands, he takes awesome steps.  He also leaves that right food pointing outward, instead of keep it straight out in front of him.  So we are going to talk to his orthopedic doctor about that in August when he go back to Phoenix.

FEEDING/SPEECH THERAPY
About a month or so ago, Tobias started seeing a new feeding and speech therapist here in town.  We go to her once a week.  I am so happy I reached out to look for a new one since the last one he was seeing could no longer provide those services at the clinic he was at.  We all love this new speech and feeding therapist.  While we are there she works on his tongue movement (getting him to push food to the sides of his mouth so he can chew).  She uses food and an electrical device to help manipulate his tongue. In the Moebius community, little or no tongue movement is very common.  But over time, he has been able to move his tongue more and more and can now push food to both sides of his mouth. :)

We aren't working on speech yet, but he has added "ball" to his vocabulary and even tried saying "dog" the other day.  He still says "mama" all the time, which I am not complaining about. lol

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
We just started seeing an occupational therapist again once a week.  Tobias has only been to her twice.  So far it is going okay.  While we are there she feeds him and works on teaching him to calmly ask for food using his words or sign language.  Right now he isn't very happy when we go see her (I think since its a new place to him and its when he has just woken up) and he just screams the entire 30 minutes we are there.  So getting him to calmly ask for food while he is hungry has been a challenge.  So hopefully the next few sessions improve because it is honestly really hard for me to sit back and watch him scream for his food like that.  He doesn't do that any other place, except when he is there with her.  I guess he's making her work for it...

PHYSICAL THERAPY
So Tobias just started seeing a new physical therapist last week, and I love her!  I am not going to get into too much detail because I am currently writing a blog post about why I changed physical therapist and I am so happy I did!

He has reached his goal of pulling to stand and cruising furniture! YAY!!  Now his new goals are to stand without assistance and walk!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post!! Catch up with ya'll soon! :)