the chunky stuff...he showed me!

I got quite a surprise yesterday during our therapy session. We've been having an ongoing struggle getting Austin to convert to textured foods. He gets grumpy and gaggy on the chunky stuff. Right now we're just trying to get him to eat the Stage 2 plain meats without gagging. It's not chunky, but it's grainy and drier than the typical fruits and veggies...even the meat/veggie mixtures. He does ok most of the time...but this meat scares me to death! The first time I gave it to him (months and months ago), he spent the night vomiting over and over. I've been really apprehensive about it ever since. I told her that I don't push him on it. If he starts gagging, I'm done and we put it away (I'm scared to push him over the edge where he'll throw it up). Then she let me in on another client she has...a 6 year old that will only eat oatmeal and rice cereal...a 6 year old! She said that her parents never pushed her and that they would quit when she coughed or gagged. Now this child won't even eat baby Puffs. Now, I don't know the whole story about this other kid or what other kinds of issues she may have...I'm not judging. It just scared me because that's exactly what I do with Austin. I thought about it and talked about it and realized it's more of my problem than Austin's problem. He needs to learn this and I'm not helping him. I'm more afraid of the possibility of him not tolerating it rather than looking at the possibility of a successful outcome. I'm letting this fear of failure overshadow the accomplishment he needs to achieve. After realizing this, I sat down with him at dinner and attempted some real table food...chicken and rice casserole. He ate it just like he'd had it a hundred times before! He worked it around in his mouth, made mmmm sounds, and polished off the entire serving! My big boy! I guess he showed me!

Detroit called and said we may not need the pre-authorization for the VMR! As ecstatic as I am to hear this news, I'm also a little confused...really confused actually. I had just argued with the girl from our pedi's office about this the day before...I was looking at the criteria on my kitchen table that I had printed out. It was specific about it needing to be pre-determined and so on. I will have to call back and re-confirm...I guess I need to hear it from my insurance company myself.

I also received the letter of medical necessity for the PET scan from Houston. Although it was missing additional paperwork for the insurance, it was exactly what I was hoping for. I'm pretty sure it covers all the bases...why Austin needs it and why he needs to go to Detroit for it. I immediately faxed it over and they informed me there was a form that needed to accompany it...if I understood her correctly, she is going to take care of the rest for me....let's hope!!

Now for seizures...we got word on his labs from last week...we got the Zonegran and Depakote levels checked along with other areas (liver function, electrolytes, etc)..Increase Depakote to 3ml 3x/day. That's 9mls a day! That seems like a lot...but what do I know...Anyway we started the increase yesterday...we'll have to wait and see how it works.