just living life

Here we are in our raggies after picking huckleberries and then driving to the "top of the mountain", with it's alpine lake. So beautiful, and SO COLD! We finally started a fire to warm up our toes.
This is Mr. Elijah getting a head start on working with shaving cream. His physical therapist, Traci, is always coming up with fun ideas for our little guy, and we love her!

We wanted you to know about two things that are heavy on our hearts.

The first concern is that Elijah has pretty much stopped drinking from a bottle. After literally hundreds (if not thousands) of hours working with him, it would be incredibly discouraging if all that effort seemed to go out the window. In the Philippines, Elijah also stopped eating for a week. Since he didn't have a g-tube then, it meant our only choice was to feed him with an eye-dropper and he ended up dehydrated and in the hospital. Thankfully, we are not under that level of stress now...and we are extra thankful for his life-saving g-tube! We're not sure what's happening, but it would be great if Elijah could continue to eat on his own.

The second thing is a new type of therapy being used for children (and adults) with brain injuries called hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have this treatment available to us, but because it is not widely medically recognized, Elijah's medicaid probably will not cover this. Elijah will have a SPECT brain scan done next week to document the blood flow that his brain is currently receiving. Then we plan to do the hyperbaric oxygen therapy, followed by another SPECT scan. IF (and that's a big "if") we can document a functional change in Elijah as well as improved oxygen to his brain, perhaps we can convince our insurance or medicaid to cover the cost. However, money isn't the biggest issue to us, although it is a factor. We are mostly just encouraged that there is a tiny gleam of "hope" for kids like Elijah! We have been cautioned so many times not to get our hopes up, and that improvement is not guaranteed. We know, we know...but how can we not try?

Thanks for caring about our little boy. It is yet to be revealed how many gifts have been given to us because of your prayers.

Sending a hug,

Julie