Long post! Sorry!

Sorry I never posted after Anthony's appointment a few weeks ago. I have been so busy that I barely have time to sit down for 5 minutes everyday. Anthony did very good at his swallow study, the results show that he does have penetration and aspiration with almost every swallow. This means that in the penetration it is going in the lungs barely. Aspiration means it is staying in the lungs. At the beginning of the test they gave him straight apple juice with no thickener, they let him get one swallow and had to take it from him with the fear that had he continued it would have caused aspiration which is not good. They began thickening everything to find a consistency that he would not aspirate or penetrate as much with. We think we have found a good consistency but he does still get the red watery eyes with most drinks even after the thickening so we don't know yet. They concluded that he has an oral motor weakness, which means that his mouth needs some work to become stronger basically. Abigail's speech therapist came out Friday and evaluated him and will began treatment with him in a week or so. Which is great because she has been around him watching him eating and drinking for a year now, so she is very familiar with him. I think that is important in fixing his issue. She has done so good with Abigail, I am amazed that with this next evaluation in November she will probably graduate from speech.....keep our fingers crossed that this does not happen so soon, because she does still need some work, not much, but some. We are hoping we can at least get another 6 months in. Either way she has only had speech for one year and if she does graduate that is awesome! She started out at the level of a one year old and is now the level of a 4 year old. She is such a hard worker and she tries so hard! I'm very proud of her. She is also doing great in school and is now writing her name and recognizing letters and numbers. She also went to her specialist for a check up and she has gained 2 lbs in 6 weeks!!! I was so excited when we found that out, this means that all along the only set back was her acid reflux, who knew that a little prevacid every day would help her gain weight, she now eats much more than before!

So that's pretty much what's been going on here. We have been back and fourth to doctor's appointments and we joined a gym so that keeps us busy a few times a week. I've been trying to stop drinking the Dr.Pepper and that is actually working out great! I have had a 24 pack for about two weeks now, which is very good for me, I usually go through a 24 pack in a few days! I've been drinking one cup of coffee in the morning, and usually Gatorade throughout the day. It's not water, but it's definitely better than Dr.Pepper! lol I have also decided to stop eating so much fast food, we were eating it about 4-5 times a week! That is way too much!! I have not bought ANYTHING from fast food for almost a week now! We have been eating at home for every meal and I haven't even been stopping in for a soda. I am starting to realize that whatever I do the kids will do, therefore I do not want to teach them to live off of fast food and soda and junk. My kids RARELY get soda or candy but yet I was never hesitant to give them fast food, kinda stupid now that I think about it. I'm trying to be more careful as to what they are eating. I'm not going to turn into an organic health nut or anything, but just lay off the salt and sugar.

I'll try to post pictures up tomorrow of our weekend. We just went and got pumpkins Friday night and took Abigail to a fall festival last night. Hayden had his first boy scout camp out last night and he enjoyed doing that. I stayed at home with Abigail and Anthony.

One last thing about our experience yesterday. We had a scheduled time between 12-4 pm for Direct TV to come out and upgrade our TV to HD, well we scheduled this appointment when we got our new furniture, so a month ago. Anyways the guy calls at 330 and says "ma'am I'm running later I'll TRY to be there by 5pm!" I was so mad! I had sat around and waited all day for them only to find out they would not be there for another hour and a half, so anyways I had to wait it out. 5 comes and the guy finally shows up a few minutes later. He walks into my house, with the 11 year old kid and tells the kid to put the HD box in the living room, then put the DVR box in the master bedroom. I was shocked! This 11 year old was about to do the work in my home?!?! The father then walked outside and the kid, who kept leaving my front door wide open(UGH!) came in with the HD box, he began to take out the DVR to move into the bedroom, he yanks on the cords and then decides that it is not going to work that way, so he finally does the smart thing to and thinks about what he is doing to get the box out correctly. He then drops the DVR on our TV! I was so mad!!! While all of this is happening the father is where? oh, by the van outside on the phone! The boy then goes to my bedroom, which I followed him, and hooked up the DVR in there. Then he goes back to the living room to install the HD box and we had to tell him to stop because he was trying to do everything the wrong way and could not get the box positioned right on the shelf. He goes outside and gets his dad, 20 minutes later they both come in to hook up the HD box. The father then tells me that he has no clue how to run a multiple line so I can only record one show at a time in my room, not two. I said whatever at this point it was 730 I just wanted them gone! Well now today the HD is not working properly, and there are wires outside exposed that he did nothing with, he forgot to fun one of the lines, and now guess what else........WE HAVE NO AIR!!! This is a new unit and he some how managed to mess it up as well! Wonderful!!!!!! I called Direct TV and they are refunding HALF of the install price and having another installer come out on Wednesday to hook it up properly. I will also be making calls tomorrow to the work force about the 11 year old who installed my Direct TV!


Sorry for the long post!!:)