Luukas' story

Monday, April 02, 2007

Spring 2007

Luukas went to Lourdes at the end of February. A few hours after we came back they called us from the hospital to tell us that there is a place for a video EEG for him, as someone had resigned. They found out that Luukas' uncontrolled movements is indeed epilepsy. It could slow down his development even more. Well, it wasn't good news, but we started treatment a couple months before Luukas' planned video-EEG. Luukas got livelier now and his attacks got smaller, but we could still see what looked like attacks.

Our novena to the 14 Helpers, including St Vitus, the patron of epilepsy, ended on the day preceding his feast. Luukas' another EEG was planned on a June day, but because Luukas had a flu, it was postponed to June 15. We didn't realise first that it was St Vitus' day. The EEG showed epileptic activity, but no attacks. This doesn't necessarily mean that there are no attacks. If they are, they didn't occur at the test. It was a nice surprise! It looks like it is better now than in the previous EEG. :)

Luukas' eyesight has improved. He still sees quite badly but better than before. Luukas is now wearing glasses to help his significant myopia, but his main visual problem are the damaged visual nerves.

Luukas has got special shoes to stand and sit in, a chair and a standing board. This all is meant to help him learn use his muscles and keep his position properly. It doesn't guarantee that his muscles stiffness will go away. Let's see.


Luukas' achievements: he "speaks" more sounds, uses his hands better, holds his back better (sits and stands better when we help him), sometimes he is able to more or less sit by himself for a moment. Luukas feels better and is more flexible while on his tummy, can hold himself on his hands a bit, enjoys our talking to him, concentrates when we play with him, likes to touch his head and toes. Luukas seems to understand his name, mom and dad in Polish and Finnish, and to understand the rules of a couple of games. He starts crying when an interesting activity is suddenly stopped. He reaches out to things more often. He started to turn to his left side again (which he had forgot some time ago).