Let's squeeze just a few more things onto that plate

Due to the Mother of All Sicknesses, Elijah hasn't been able to go to speech therapy for a couple of weeks. So last night, as his speech therapist was listening to all of the new words come out of his mouth (and nose), she (in addition to being happy about the progress) was very concerned. I knew in my gut his nasally speech was a bad thing, and she confirmed that for me.

It is possible that Elijah's soft palate and pharynx were not formed correctly at birth and that this may be the cause of the very nasal sounds he makes. It is also possible that he has something called velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). An ENT would be able to evaluate him and confirm this diagnosis. Lucky for us, we already have a trusty ENT, so we are on the schedule for mid-July.

In the meantime, we have some serious work to do. We will be strongly encouraging Elijah to find ways to blow air out through his mouth instead of his nose.. Whistles, blowing bubbles, asking him to make lots of b, h and p sounds, plugging his nose when he is talking nasally (he surprisingly loves having his nose plugged, silly kid). Since his speech is just starting to develop, we have to take care of this problem as quickly as we can. Bad speaking habits are currently being formed and if they are not corrected now, it may be very difficult to correct them later.

The hypernasal speech may be correctable through intensive speech therapy, or, depending on what the ENT finds in his evaluation, surgery. One thing at a time. Now we are focused on his tethered spinal cord surgery. After that we will focus on the speech issues. I wonder what could possibly be next? Stay tuned, because I'm sure there will be something!

Elijah's speech therapist is also concerned about the fact that he says the ends of all of his words instead of the beginnings of them. She said that this typically would indicate a hearing problem. Honestly, I have never gotten the sense that anything is wrong with his hearing (and I pay super close attention to this sort of thing), but it is something to check into in the near future. He hasn't had a hearing test since birth, so it's probably time we do another one anyway.

Another new challenge for us is Elijah's reaction to the additional kids at daycare (since school is out). He does well in small groups, but not so well in large groups. He gets pretty anxious and whiny and clingy, none of which are good things, especially at daycare. We are praying he will adjust quickly.

When I look at the big picture, things are all working out perfectly. We entered 2009 viewing it as the year free of heart surgeries. We are discovering that it is also the year of taking care of loose ends. I won't lie, I have been overwhelmed with (and a little sad about) all of our Elijah Findings lately. But I am extremely thankful that Loose Ends Year isn't coinciding with Heart Surgery Year. I am also thankful that we are able to take care of these things. Things could be much worse, that is for sure. I am extremely thankful for all that we have.

p.s. Check out the new Calendar tab! Wow, huh? I created this list as something we can print out and bring to new doctors as we see them (since adding doctors to our list seems to be ongoing), but I thought it might serve as a good "calendar," too!