i found some time

i have finally found some time to sit down and get on the computer. i feel like november flew by in the blink of an eye and now i barely have time to breath before christmas. phew! once again, we've had a lot going on. carson had a follow up appointment with his neurologist (botox doctor) that went well. we just go in about 6 weeks or so after he gets botox to check and see how it's working. dr. goldstein said if carson wasn't the poster child for botox then he didn't know who was. what makes me feel even better is that he said there has to be a good, smart brain in there for the botox to be effective, otherwise the muscles wouldn't "learn" what to do when they are loosened up by the botox. clearly carson has a good brain :) i'm not sure if i have shared this or not, but this last round of botox has been wonderful. we are seeing SO much more mobility since his last shots. at school, two of his end of the year goals are to be able to walk independently for 20 feet and then 50 feet. when we set those goals in march of last year i thought there is no way that will happen. he was barely taking a few steps without falling. well guess what people, he is consistently walking 20 feet and has almost mastered the 50 feet! his teachers are so impressed with him and he get compliments from so many people at school on what a good job he is doing. you can just see the pride in his face and it brings tears to my eyes. he still uses his walker during the day but he goes on lots of "walks" with his teacher and doesn't need the walker. in fact, they are having to tell him to slow down. he gets so excited because in his mind he is running just like the other kids. seriously, tears as i write this. you take for granted all the things that kids just do on their own. carson has worked his little tush off and it makes me a proud mama to see him succeeding.

the day after our trip to the neurologist we headed right back down to Children's for carson's yearly CT scan of his shunt and a visit to his neurosurgeon. between the two of these boys we have every specialist area covered. i have earned my degree in so many fields, it's not even funny. well, maybe a little. if you can't laugh at life then what can you do, right? anyway, i was so nervous thinking that carson would flip out when they strapped him on to the table. it really is a quick scan but to a three year old it's kind of scary. they told me they would try to get it done without sedating him. so i had a plan. i told him that the mickey mouse clubhouse was through the tunnel. that dried up any tears that were about to flow. he looked at me and said, "really?" now, i know lying isn't the best route but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. i told him he had to lay really still and look really hard. he laid down, let them strap him in and in to the tunnel he went. he kept saying, "i'm still looking mom, i don't see it" and yes, i told him to keep looking that he was doing a great job. once he was done and unstrapped he sat up and said, "i did it mommy, but i still need the clubhouse." i felt terrible that i had lied but at least he didn't have to be sedated. the nurse (who was so nice and even remembered us from last year) gave carson a teddy bear for being so brave. it was a sweet gesture, but he was expecting something in the form a a clubhouse so he handed it to me and said, "no thank you mom" at least he is polite :)

from the hospital it was over to the doctor's office where we waited for 2 HOURS! i am not lying. we sat in this tiny waiting room full of other people and kids for 2 hours. thankfully i had my iPad so carson could watch his movies and play some games but even that wore off after a while. once we finally got to see the doctor he pulled up the scans and said, "well if this doesn't make you happy nothing will" it's hard to explain but before carson had his shunt his ventricles were full of spinal fluid because he doesn't absorb it on his own. these ventricles were taking up a lot of space in his brain. now you can't even see the ventricles. they are tiny little slits on the scan now which is how they are supposed to look. so all in all, the shunt is doing it's trick. dr. reisner was super pleased with carson and how well he is doing. he gave him an A+ and said he would see us in a year.

so, as you can see the last two days have been pretty busy for old carson. one thing he has enjoyed doing is going potty in the car. i bring it along with us because it's hard for him to use an adult sized toilet. so we set up shop in the car and he can watch the tv while going pee. he thought that was pretty funny.

and last but not least carson had his christmas program at school today. i'll save that for the next post with pictures and videos but i will say this, it was so cute! he did a fantastic job and was adorable. but when is he not?