Real Food

Ok, before I get to the title, a lot has happened!

1.) Jack finally had his echo. Somehow, it was forgotten back in July during all of the procedures and exams while Jack was in in the operation room. Whatever. Big surprise? Not really. Well, to make a long story short, Jack had his echo while awake and did great! He barely fussed! There was no change since last year, which is totally awesome! He still has a murmur and aortic stenosis, The hole in his heart is closed. Something was seen where the hole used to be but it wasn't clear because Jack must have been fussing at that point. It isn't a worry so we go back for another echo in one year! Yippee!

2.) What is Jack saying? He says this every now and then and I'm always stuck for quite some time. Can you figure it out? "Zooweebuh." I'll tell you later on.

3.) Jack has had two more seizures since the long one while on vacation. Both were very short. I still haven't called the neurologist. If I do, we have to put Jack on Keppra. We aren't ready for this yet. If the seizures get regular I don't think we'll have much choice. Until then...

3.) As we expected, Jack was losing weight on the Elecare Jr. His body just doesn't absorb elemental formula. I could see it in his face before we even had him weighed. Jason and I took Jack to the nutritionist. She wanted to add Duocal or Benecalorie to his diet. Both are powder supplements that are added to the formula to add calories. My goal is to take Jack off of most of the medications he is on. Because of this, I asked about getting Jack on something called a blended diet. A blenderized diet is exactly how it sounds. Real food blended into liquid form. The nutritionist was all for it! She gave me a guide for one meal replacement a day.

1 oz meat (canned or boiled chicken)
1/2 cup fruit/vegetables (applesauce, bananas, pears, peaches, green beans, peas, carrots, spinach, or corn)
1 oz grains (wheat bread, cheerios, rolled oats, cream of wheat, or other grains)
1 tsp fat (vegetable oil)
liquid to thin it out (Elecare Jr)


I'm not going to get into specifics because this is the second time I'm typing this post (I accidentally deleted the original draft even though I checked a different box and doubled checked my check before hitting delete and the wrong one was still deleted and not recoverable because it was a draft!).  If there are grammatical errors, too bad!

Jack is already gaining weight! He has hit 29lbs for the first time!!!!!!!! I just washed up an entire basket of fall/winter Jack clothes from last year. The clothes are still too big and he gets to wear them two years in a row. However, I might get to buy a size bigger for the first time in more than a year!!!!!!

One of Jack's first meals. Wheat bread, chicken, green beans, and vegetable oil.

The results.

One meal ready to go.

Eating REAL FOOD!

Now, Jack handled the first two weeks great! We had to ease into feeding an entire meal of real food. Jack's belly wasn't used to it. The difficulty came with the syringes, the blenders I was using (a Baby Bullet and an immersion blender). The syringes don't push thicker liquids well. I solved that problem easily. I ordered special O-ring syringes online. Once they came, I could tell immediately why they were recommended by the Blenderized Diet community. The other difficulty came with my blenders. I couldn't get the food blended well enough. I was battling clog after clog. The pressure of the syringe was also backing up, causing messy explosions of food all over Jack, myself, and the kitchen.

The blenderized diet community recommends a professional blender to create these meals. I followed their advice and started looking. I found the Blendtec to be the way to go. I was instructed to write the company a letter sharing Jack's story and his history with feeding. If all went as planned, they would provide me with a blender, free of charge. The plan didn't work. I was offered a refurbished blender at a medical of discount of $300 plus $18 shipping. Uhm... no. I contacted Illinois Assistive Technology and asked if a blender would be covered as assistive technology because it helps Jackson with his daily living and it would be considered a medical device The company agreed that the blender would benefit Jack and usually provides assistive technology for free but because the blender is not standard assistive technology, I could apply for a cash loan. Uhm... no. Christmas and Jack's birthday will be soon. I figured we'd just ask for cash gifts for Jack and purchase the blender once we had the money.

Somehow, God had a plan. Someone I have known for quite some time donated a Blendtec blender to Jackson. It wasn't asked for. I didn't make any implication that I was asking for help. I simply shared on facebook that I made a disaster of a mess with my current blenders and was battling the system to try to get what was needed. The donation came from a family that usually gives one family Christmas each year. The wife has watched and read about Jack since the day he was born. She said that we are an inspiration. I guess I'm humble because this is just the life we were given, but I'm still gitty each time I make Jack's food!

This is the AWESOME gift that came on Monday! I am so thankful. I don't even know how I can ever say thank you an appropriate way. There are no words.

Here are two meals blended and ready to go. The blender completely liquified the contents. AMAZING!

4.) Did you figure out the word? Zebra.

5.) Here are some fun pictures of Jack! We're moving to a new town just before Thanksgiving! That will have to be another post for another time!

Eating a mini cake cone filled with chocolate coconut milk ice cream. Jack looks so grown up!

Look who's standing and only holding on with one hand!