PT day!

We tried out a new playground and it was a big hit.  Only problem was the different play areas were so far apart and we spent a lot of time crossing from one side to the playground to another whenever something caught W's eye.  It did give Miss C a chance to see how much improvement he's made running, though, so that's a plus!  Mr. Piper was able to come to this session but then he spent the whole time running kids to the bathroom because of course no one had to go at the same time ;)

We are seeing more and more improvements since starting the migraine medication!

PT is down to one

Now that Miss Iz has finished her PT, our PT day is short!  Just W in the mornings.  This week we went to the Early Childhood playground at our local school.  We've been visiting different schools with a preschool program lately so the equipment is a little more on W's level.  However, his balance and coordination has improved so much since starting the migraine meds that next week we are trying a regular elementary playground.  He likes those better because there is more to do but he was so unbalanced we stopped going to a bigger kids playground.  We've never been to next week's school so the kids are excited (they spotted the playground driving past and asked we visit during PT).

W update

We went on a trip and it just threw everything off :p

W is making good progress in speech therapy--he even put together two words independently (more water) instead of just repeating phrasing he's heard us use often.

OT is also going well--a little too well, in fact, because his fine motor skills have progressed to the point he can get my gate at the top of the stairs open :\

Our PT is at a bit of a loss, though--W continues to be all over the place in balance and coordination, some days he does so well and other days he's constantly falling and running into things.  The neurologist did a bunch of testing and nothing turned up.  She thinks he might be having some migraine activity that is effecting balance, coordination, speech, etc instead of causing pain so we've started him on a daily migraine medication.  So far, it does seem to help as his periods of unsteadiness are shorter and further apart.

He turned two recently and seems to be determined to show is he is most definitely two with the stubbornness and the "I do it myself" attitude LOL

EEG results are in

And it was perfectly normal.  Which is good because hey, normal! But bad because we still have no definitive answers on why he has periods of extreme instability :\  Neuro is thinking migraines but there's not really anything at this age that will tell us yay or nay because he can't tell us about it so its all a guessing game.  I hate health guessing games :p

The Big Neurology Appointment

A few months back Baby W's pediatrician referred him over to the same neurologist B and Iz see but her schedule is always so full it was a wait to get a new patient appointment with her.  The main reason he was going to see her is his balance--he will be fine and really coordinated and then he'll go through periods, at least a few times a week, where he falls constantly, walks into things, even falls over while sitting or standing still.  B and Iz were like that as well but they also had moments where they completely blanked out and once those blank moments were identified as absence seizures and they went on medicine, their balance and coordination improved tremendously.

W doesn't have those other symptoms that would suggest seizures.  However, because two siblings suffer from seizures, W is going to do a sleep deprived two hour EEG (and won't it be fun to keep him awake!) just to see if there's anything going on.  For both B and Iz, their short EEGs (20 minutes for them) showed issues immediately and their 24 hour EEGs confirmed that they had active spots 24/7.  The seizure meds calm those spots down and the absence seizures and other symptoms improved.

If the EEG is fine and all of the lab work she ordered for W are fine, it will rule out some possible causes of balance issues.  She thinks, based on his symptoms and the timing of his "episodes" that he may possibly be having pain-free migraine activity.  I suffer from migraines and apparently that puts all the kids at a 50% risk of developing them as well.  Since he has been injuring himself, she is thinking we might want to try a migraine medication and if it stops or greatly reduces his "episodes" that would be a good indication that he having migraine activity.  We'll get through all the testing first before we make any decisions.