father's day 2011

We went to Gary's parent's house to celebrate Father's Day.  Gary and his dad spent the morning golfing...which isn't really a special Father's Day treat, because that's what he does every weekend (as well as Monday and Wednesday evenings and sometimes Friday afternoons).

But the real treat was instead of grabbing a cold turkey sandwich or leftovers from the night before, we (meaning Carole did all the work, while I kept her company and we chatted away) prepared a feast of the boys' most favorite foods:  grilled chicken (for his dad) and ribs (G's favorite), homemade mac & cheese, grilled asparagus, baked potatoes, salad, homemade cherry pie (G's dad) and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.  BTW, we totally have to wear pants with elastic waistbands whenever Carole puts together one of her amazing feasts.  Just keepin' it real.

G's sister started to put the meat on the grill, but Gary took over from there because he IS the grillmaster.  He has a knack for knowing exactly when to take food off the grill precisely when it's done and not a second longer.  Juicy and moist.  Did I just use juicy and my husband in the same sentence? Is it getting warm in here?

Anyway, after filling our bellies and sitting around chatting, the games came out.  We are a game family. At every family get-together we play games... real sit-down-around-the-table games.  In fact, we host a family game night every Friday all summer long.  This time, a few games of Canasta were played (Carole, Tina and Gary), along with Sequence (Richard, Carole, Dillon, Ashley, Tina and myself) and Rocks (Michael).  We also watched Rory McElroy win the US Open too.  Michael loves to watch golf, so the big boys suffered through watching it with him.  Huge sacrifice on their part.  NOT.   :)

 Happy Father's Day to Gary, Richard and my dad....big hugs to you all!

medical stuff

Sorry to be so few and far between with posting updates around here.  We're dealing with a lot of medical issues for the boy and some tough decisions....like being able to (possibly) surgically remove the spot in Michael's brain that causes his awful seizures, but removing that part of his brain has a risk of potentially making him blind.  Oy vey...we also have a lot of hurry up and wait appointments as well to deal with his tethered spinal cord and decreased walking, knees continually dislocating when his legs are straightened and other possible surgeries to address those issues as well.  In addition to our daily routine of Conductive Education, speech therapy, independent life-skills (like self-feeding, dressing, bathing, etc.), and still trying to have fun and ENJOY life...which we are totally doing too.  Really!  :)

So while doing some research on the seizure surgery, I ran across this presentation that really caught our attention.  There are two topics that he touches on (one he barely discusses), but we were able to key in on right away.  The first is that seizures could be reduced/stopped non-surgically.  The second, is that those with learning disabilities can increase their learning....through neural prosthetics.  So cool.

Here is the cliff note version if you don't want to watch the video:


Ed Boyden shows how, by inserting genes for light-sensitive proteins into brain cells, he can selectively activate or de-activate specific neurons with fiber-optic implants. With this unprecedented level of control, he's managed to cure mice of analogs of PTSD and certain forms of blindness. On the horizon: neural prosthetics. At the MIT Media Lab, Ed Boyden leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which invents technologies to reveal how cognition and emotion arise from brain networks -- and to enable systematic repair of disorders such as epilepsy and PTSD.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/ed_boyden.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden.html

Impressive stuff to say the least.  Now...off to search the net for clinical studies for this new breakthrough.   :)