Happy Birthday little buddy!

Happy Birthday Benjamin :-) This last weekend we all had the opportunity to visit Thomas the Tank engine at the Colorado Railroad Museum. It was a gift from Benjamin's grandparents. We all had such a great time. Today is his actual birthday and Sunday we will be having his party. Benjamin has the ability to blow out his candles now so we are hoping he'll blow them out this year. What a three years it has been, but oh the blessings we have received.

Family Fun

Requests have been made that I include more about the rest of the family. I never thought about it because I started the blog to follow Ben's surgeries. So now that things seem to have settled down, I will try to include more of Ben's home life. Here is a video I filmed the other day. It was an activity that went along with our Veggie Tale Bible devotion.

The Good, The Great, and the Excellent!

It's been a few months since I've updated Benjamin's blog but not for lack of excitement. Benjamin is excelling more and more everyday. Where do I start?

I guess I'll start with the GOOD. When Benjamin was just a few weeks old and still in the hospital they did what's called an "ABR" hearing test. During this test they place monitoring patches on the head to see how the brain stem reacts to different decibels of sound. After this test they told us that Benjamin had severe hearing loss in his right ear and slight hearing loss in his left ear. We've know this all along and he has shown definite signs of no hearing in his right ear. He compensates extremely well though. They wanted to do another "ABR" sometime down the road and last week was that sometime. We were able to find out more exacts on his hearing loss. It turns out that he has pretty much no hearing in his right ear. I guess you would probably say it's 90-95% loss. No surprise to us! We have never been sure of what kind of loss he has in his left ear though. They discovered that he has 50% hearing loss in his left ear. WOW! You would never know it! His speech therapist is shocked that his vocabulary is so high for having such extreme hearing loss. He was fitted on Monday for hearing aids in both ears. They are not sure how helpful it will be to place one in his right ear, but they said it's better to try one, than to assume it won't work. He will be getting his hearing aids in a few weeks. I'm so excited to see how he responds to them! If you wanted to imagine what he hears right now, stuff a piece of cotton in your left ear and then plug your right ear off as much as you can and that would be similar. The children and I did this yesterday and it was a great thing to experience. Praise God for the technology of hearing devices. Benjamin's world is about to change!

Now for the GREAT! Benjamin went to see the hand surgeon yesterday and was given a "thumbs up!" (ha ha) Everything is looking fabulous. Next month Benjamin will hit the one year mark for the surgery to give him a new thumb on his right hand and boy does he use it. It is so wonderful. He uses his left thumb more everyday as it gets stronger and stronger. Thanks Doctor Rooks and Doctor Deering. Your work will be put to good use in the years to come!

Now for the excellent... Benjamin has been working with a speech therapist for almost a year now and since day one she has worked with Benjamin on blowing bubbles. From the time Benjamin was born he was not able to suck or to blow out. This means that he was not able to blow out his candles at his 1st or 2nd birthday. Well just a couple weeks ago he blew bubbles for the first time!!!! He is so amazing. Statistics say he would never improve his oral abilities, but he's proving that all wrong. I'm looking forward to seeing him blow out his candles in September on his 3rd birthday. I'm sure I will video it for all to see.

Everyday I'm amazed at Benjamin and all the things he's accomplishing. He is sooo COOL :-) Everyone who meets Benjamin instantly falls in love with him. He is loved by all. I can't believe that he is my son and that God chose me to be his mother. I have done nothing to earn the privilege of being his mother. He truly is a gift from God!

Cotton-Eyed Ben

I took this tonight at Elizabeth's Birthday party. How cute is it!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Taken just before leaving to take off the cast.


This is the splint Benjamin gets to wear at night and most of the day.


This is what his hand looks like now, one day after cast removal and 9 weeks post surgery.

Benjamin was being silly insisting that I take a picture of his funny pose.

The Big Day is Here :-)

Benjamin gets his cast off today!!! He is so excited. He understands this time. Yesterday he said to me, "mommy, mommy, MOMMY!!!!, off, off" while pointing to his cast. I said, "yes Ben, you get your cast off tomorrow." We then clapped. For those who have never gone through the process, removing a cast is probably worse than putting a root canal in. Not really looking forward to that part. Took almost an hour last time on the right hand. One hour of constant crying can get to a mommy. Then we had to go have a splint fitted. This was another hour of crying. I'm bringing suckers today. Hopefully this might distract him just a little. If you get this before his appointment it is at 2:45 MST so please say a prayer for us!! I took this picture this morning at the breakfast table. Say goodbye to the dirty nasty cast!!!

Christine, this one's for you

Here is a video of Benjamin using his right hand. He had a pollicization surgery done on this hand seven months ago.

It's a crazy life!

Just when you think life can't get any crazier, guess what? IT DOES!!! So last Wednesday afternoon I was just getting ready to take a nice hot bath when I thought, "Wow, I haven't had to bring Benjamin to the doctor this week!" How nice is that!! 15 minutes later, while still in the bath, Benjamin came to me complaining that his thumb hurt (the hand that just had surgery). I looked in his cast and it appeared that there was a little white ball inside. My first thought, Ben shoved a ball down inside his cast. As I investigated I realized it was actually the pin they had put in his thumb to hold it in place. "Oh no!!!" The pin is coming out! This is not good. I jumped out of the bath and immediately called the doctor's office telling them the pin was coming out. They set up an appointment for the next morning. Oh yea, a trip to Grand Junction (1 hr each way) just what I had been wanting to do all week. So the next morning off we went, only to have the doctor tell me that the pin had been there all along I just couldn't see it before because it had been covered up with gauze. Wonderful, a trip for nothing. Then on Friday morning Benjamin woke up coughing terribly and refusing to get out of bed. He had caught the nasty cold virus the rest of my family had. At 2 am the next morning (Saturday) I woke up to him breathing rapidly, racing heart rate and a temp of 102. So off to the Emergency Room we went. Ends up he has Walking Pneumonia. Returned home that day and went back the next morning for a check-up. And I was so excited about not having any doctors appointments last week. I then ended up with three! Just when it seems like life can't get any crazier, IT DOES!!! Benjamin is finally doing better today. Ate his first meal and walked around for the first time in four days. Sometimes having a child with medical needs seems so overwhelming but in the end you look back, hear them laugh and play and it is all worth it!

Oral Therapy

Audrey, this one's for you!

I took some pictures and video of Benjamin in therapy the other day. Thought I'd share them. The picture is with his speech therapist Audrey, they were playing with bubbles. In the video he has peanut butter on his lips. We are working on getting him to use his tongue more to lick his lips.

Surgery is over

Benjamin's surgery went very well and we are already home. We showed up at the Surgery Center at 6:30 am and they had us out of there by 11:45am. We were shocked when they said we were free to leave when we felt comfortable. All I know is that what we dealt with today beats going to the hospital any day!!! Ben is now resting thanks to tylenol with codeine. The surgeon said the surgery was successful. It turned out that Benjamin had only a partial tendon out of four tendons in the thumb. They transfered a tendon from his index finger and one from his pinkie. It is possible they may need to transfer one from his ring finger in the future. Only time will tell. Glad the surgery is over and we'd be happy if this was the last surgery EVER!! We'll see what God has in store.

Reconstructive Surgery

So Benjamin is going in tomorrow for his reconstructive surgery on his left hand. I'm sure there is some fancy name for it, but I don't know it. His surgery will be at a surgery center so he doesn't have to stay overnight at the hospital. We are very excited for Benjamin and what this surgery will do for him. His right hand is doing so great!!! His recovery will be very similar to his right hand recovery. He will have a cast on his arm for six weeks and then he will wear a splint for up to a year.