November 9, 2009

Caden looking to be mobile

Caden and his bud Casey

Hey all. David here on a nice Monday night in Chicagoland providing you an update. Today we had a good day together as a family. Melissa and I brought Caden Marshall up to an appointment at CHW today that went well. The appointment was not the normal cardiologist check up that is coming up on Nov. 20th but a developmental check up.

CHW offered us the opportunity to have Caden take part in a developmental study that will focus on children specifically with Congenital Heart Defects. This is a great opportunity for us to see how Caden is faring against other children in his age range as well as help CHW collect data to share with other hospitals and families. The information made available to us through studies like these are one of the reasons we chose to bring Caden to CHW for his surgeries and care. CHW is leader in tracking these CHD kids through childhood (God willing). First and foremost they focus on sustaining life and then, through programs like this, they focus on the quality of that life as well. We are so glad we made the choice we did by going to CHW. Also, Melissa and I love that by participating in voluntary studies like these we may be helping another couple make the best decision for their family.

Today we saw professionals from speech, physical, and occupational therapy. Each of them sat on the floor together with Caden and did some different tests with various objects observing him closely. It was actually very interesting seeing their methods and learning what they were looking for. Trying to asses an infant must be difficult yet they had some very ingenious ways. It was apparent to us that this crew is passionate and really loves what they do. One treat for today was seeing PT Jackie again. She normally does not do clinic work as she normally works only in the CICU at CHW so we really got lucky that she was filling in today. They ran all their tests and came back a couple of minutes later with the scoring. Here is how Caden Marshall is doing.

Weight: 17lbs 15ozs
Length 27”
Cognitive (play skills) 8 mo
Fine Motor 10 mo.
Gross Motor 7 mo
Receptive Language (understanding) 6 mo
Expressive Language (talking) 8 mo.

Caden Marshall will be 8 months old on Wednesday so he is a bit behind in at least one of the areas. Melissa and I are absolutely thrilled with his progress. We know that these HLHS kids that make it tend to be behind in motor development because of the surgeries and early immobility. Also some can be really challenged from a cognitive/neurological standpoint due to the bypass process during the surgeries where blood flow is cut off to the brain as well as post surgical saturation levels that can leave damaging lesions on the brain if they are too low for too long. Our son appears to be doing well.

We are and continue to be blessed with our son. We are so thankful to God for his guidance and the grace He has shown on our son.

We hope to post a video of him crawling soon. We feel he is so close.

Thank you for your constant support.

David, Melissa, and Caden.