It’s been two months since my daughter and I returned from the gastrostomy feeding tube (g-tube) weaning program at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It has been a busy 60 days. Gia …
An Unexpected Path: Thirteen Days
Thirteen days ago I started reducing my 19-month-old daughter’s calories via her gastrostomy feeding tube (g-tube) with a team of medical professionals at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Thirteen days ago I …
An Unexpected Path: You can lead a baby to food
It’s been ten days since I started reducing food via my daughter’s feeding gastrostomy tube (g-tube) in our third weaning attempt. Under the watchful eyes of the Seattle Children’s Hospital …
An Unexpected Path: Perspective
I was going to write about how this process has been exhausting, frustrating, and disappointing. How hard it is to be away from my firstborn when she calls crying everyday …
An Unexpected Path: Gtube
In a few days I will stop feeding my child. I will do it slowly, dropping meals over a week’s time. I will not give in and feed her the …
An Unexpected Path: Moving towards a better home
When my parents decided to build our family home, they wanted to provide a better life for us. Moving out of Philadelphia to a better school district was their number one priority; accessibility wasn’t even on the radar. After all, why should it have been? They were in their late 30s, both healthy individuals with a young active family. How would they have known that six years after moving my mom would break her leg? Who would’ve guessed that fall, and the many subsequent ones that followed, would eventually lead to diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis?
An Unexpected Path: Hears to Ears
First of all I just want to say that I am very thankful for ears. And, I suppose just like other important body parts, I had just taken normal hearing and ear structure for granted.
When Gia was born, her left ear was deformed. I figured that if it looked malformed on the outside, that something might be wrong on the inside. I pestered the NICU staff about when the hearing screening would take place and I was not surprised when she failed. They told me that it was not uncommon to fail the screening because it was a generalized test and the NICU was a noisy place. But when she had her first sedated hearing test with the audiologist, her hearing impairment was confirmed. Since then she’s had several more sedated hearing tests, wears bilateral hearing aids and we see the audiologists monthly.
An Unexpected Path: The Best $12 I Have Ever Spent
It’s a little disappointing to see my almost 2.5 year old only take a handful of steps these last months.