Caelen's Quest: My Favourite Things

26 August 2015

My Favourite Things

Hello everyone!

Every morning mommy will place me on my special chair while we watch cartoons and have brunch together. Today I am having cereals! I love them because they are crunchy and I call them 'crispy'. Chocolate, cake, ice cream and gummy bears are a few of my favorite foods too. Even though I only get nibbles, I'm satisfied to be able to eat.

Mommy insisted I brush my teeth thoroughly otherwise monsters will grow in my mouth and I won't be able to eat my favourite foods anymore. This I happily obliged. *Whispering* Sharing my secret to healthy teeth with you - always use a good toothpaste (with 1,000ppm of Floride) to effectively prevent decay. Here's what I use:

Rice grain size for me; pea size for older children

I know a lot about vehicles because they are my favourite toys. I have boxes and boxes of them!

My toys mostly came from daddy & mommy, uncles & aunties, and kinder surprise eggs (Oh boy, I loved surprise eggs! Do you know YouTube has loads of videos on all kinds of eggs big and small? I always marvel at what comes out of them). By the way I like Legos too! I can build any cars I imagine them to be although it takes me huge efforts to stack them together.

The last thing on my favourite list is none other than tablet. Mommy dislikes when I ask for it often but she seems amazed how I picked up words and gained so much information & knowledge from it, she couldn't keep the tablet from me.

Do you know that I picked up swimming on YouTube? I was watching videos of children having fun in the pool and I learnt that you must kick your legs to stay afloat. Now whenever Cayla jie jie brings me to the pool (on our huge bed), I can swim too! That was so much fun.

I have a pet turtle on my tablet (and 2 real ones in the tank). I learnt how to shower, feed and play with it. See! I'm capable of caring for others too. Lately I'm quite interested in dinosaurs and have been learning their names diligently. Hopefully next time I'll be able to tell you more about them soon.

P.S. Mommy's laptop broke down few days ago. It will take time before she can blog properly again.

4 comments:

Unknown26 August 2015 at 16:54
=) Hi Caelen!! Aunty Jolie is happy to see your post again!
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Anonymous28 August 2015 at 14:38
Hello Lowell,
have you ever thought of creating a facebook page instead of blogspot? just a thought.. Press on Caelen and mummy! :)
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Lowell29 August 2015 at 11:28
I guess I chose blog over FB partly of how the contents are being organised and presented. No doubt FB gives instantaneous updates (I'll probably be obsessed with postings), blog allows me to pass myself better.

This is why I thank C supporters for sticking around and cheering us on all these while.
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Beginning of his Journey

Caelen was diagnosed with Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) on 13 Jan 2014, at age 10 months.

SMA is caused by a missing or abnormal (mutated) gene known as survival motor neuron gene 1 (SMN1). In a healthy person, this gene produces a protein in the body called survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. In a person with mutated genes, this protein is absent or significantly decreased, and causes severe problems for motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the spinal cord which send out nerve fibres to muscles throughout the body. Since SMN protein is critical to the survival and health of motor neurons, nerve cells may shrink and eventually die without this protein, resulting in muscle weakness.

The hallmark feature of SMA Type I is that children are unable to sit or stand without help. They will require equipment such as strollers or wheelchairs for mobility. Swallowing and feeding will become difficult for children with this type of SMA and they will eventually lose the ability to swallow safely without aspirating. Children may eventually require a feeding tube to supplement their nutrition which permits the administration of liquid food into their stomachs.

Children with SMA Type 1 will also experience weakness of the muscles used for breathing, those that help expand the chest and fill the lungs with air. The chest is smaller than usual in these children and they begin to breathe using primarily their stomach muscles (belly breathing). The lungs do not fully develop due to this type of breathing, and coughing becomes very weak. It may be difficult for children to get enough air into their lungs while sleeping, and eventually throughout the day. Many of these children will require equipment to help them breathe; again this is based on what each family chooses. Weakness also leads to problems with the spine (scoliosis) and hips (displacement) that may lead to further loss of ability/function.

Source: Families of SMA