Posted Apr 5, 2008 9:35pm

Hello to all friends, family, and people that love Kaden. Kaden is now 19 months old, and as most of you know is a bright eyed, vibrant little man. He is still requiring continuous oxygen and has been diagnosed with certain brain abnormalities. Unfortunately the parts of the brain that control swallowing, digestion, tongue movement and some sensory related issues has damage. Kaden has a long road ahead of him, but is doing his best to thrive and make his appearance known in his little world. He has three very loving siblings that show him affection and interact with him beautifully. He is still homebound but recieves incredible care from his Physicians, his nursing team, and his speech, physical, and occupational therapists. For a long time he threw up several times a day and developed an aversion to anything in his mouth which made feeding very difficult. He required a lot of suctioning to clear his airway and therefore was home all the time. His healthcare team is doing their best to help him grow and thrive so he can eventually live a typical life. We are very blessed to have them in our lives helping him everyday overcome his challenges. He is learning to communicate with sign language and is able to eat small amounts of baby food. He will soon have a special procedure so her can't aspirate into his lungs anymore and will have a g-tube to help give him more calories. Although any surgical procedure is scary, everyone feels we will see major improvements in his growth and respiratory status once we correct some of the problem. God bless all of you that love and care for our son!

After reading other care pages, I found that in order for other preemie parents to contact us for support with "keywords" I must include the medical terminology of all of the different diagnosies Kaden has or has had since birth. So, here we go:
Prematurity, low birth weight, PDA, PFO, Anemia, Chronic Lung Disease, Respiratory distress, left hemi-parisis, static encephalopathy, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, oral motor dysfunction, swallowing dysphagia, frequent aspiration pneumonia, tachypynea, over pronation, sensory integration and modulation deficits, failure to thrive, and preparing for a g-tube and nissen fundopilication. Whoo! That's a mouthful and only necessary to list it all to reach out to other parents for mutual support.