Daily Dose: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Hope's beautiful smile

Hope laughing it up

If she isn't the most beautiful girl in the world, I don't know who is!!! Seeing these pictures of Hope smiling and laughing has given me a little more motivation in my life and reminded me to pick my chin up and keep pushing through.

Now, back to Hope....

Hope is doing well. Things went quite well last Tuesday the long drive to Ann Arbor and the appointment. The appointment itself was rather uneventful as Hope's mommy & daddy really did not leave with any more information than they went with. It seemed to be the necessary introductory meeting for everyone: they had planned to tell us Hope would need a CT scan, hearing aids, etc. Hope has had these for months now, so there was really no new news. We have been told that we will need at least 4 more pre-op appointments with the cochlear implant team before surgery.

Other appointments last week have had more of an impact. Hope's appointment with the pulmonologist on Wednesday went extremely well. The pulmonologist was so impressed with Hope's status that they have begun weaning Hope of most of her respiratory medications, and if things continue to go well they will try to wean Hope's vent settings at our next appointment.

The somewhat less positive appointment was with the developmental pediatrics clinic. Hope was officially diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). Although we knew CP would be a likely outcome of Hope's brain injury, we were under the impression that it is rarely diagnosed before 2 years of age and no one was completely prepared for the news yesterday. Evidently, CP is a rather obvious diagnosis for Hope and the doctor felt no need to wait. While no one knows the form or severity of the disease yet, the news did hit everyone pretty hard.

Hope got her RSV vaccination Monday and had to be weighed beforehand. She weighed in at 24 pounds 5 ounces.... just slightly bigger than she was one year ago - 2 pounds 8 ounces!!!! Who would have thought she'd have come so far!!

As you can see from the picture, Hope has been smiling more and more and has even started laughing! It's a silent laugh because of the trach but it is still the most beautiful thing in the world right now :)