I have heard stories about Olympic and professional athletes who will spend time training in high altitudes so that when they return to sea level they have almost super human strength, agility and speed. The idea behind this is that because the atmosphere is so thin at high altitudes the body has to work extra hard to do anything, let alone strenuous physical activity, thereby creating the most rigorous training method known to man. When your body returns to breathing oxygen-rich air, your body is all the stronger for the oxygen deprivation. This is known as oxygen deprivation therapy. And I think that Judson has spent the first five years of his life doing it since his oxygen levels were always 15-20% below everyone else's (a number that would normally send any of us to the emergency room). Now that his oxygen levels have increased to closer to normal, he has become what we lovingly call "Turbo Juddy." He's taken to riding his bike, running around with the other neighborhood kids, hiking up the hill to the bus stop, and just generally being much, much more active. He used to be our little caboose, always dragging behind the rest of us wherever we went. I was astonished this past weekend when he sprinted ahead of all of us walking to Caleb's baseball game. That had never happened before, but now that he's got his turbo heart, it may be a more common occurrence. He's generally more vivacious, funny, and sassy too. He's certainly taken to talking back more than he used to do, which we'll take. It's as though he's now brimming with new life and is enjoying every minute of it.
Here's a view that's more common these days:
He's dancing with girls at parties:
