Hope Admiring Herself in the Mirror
Hope has had a very good couple of weeks. She went to the nephrologist (kidney doctor) and many of the concerns that they had previously, we are no longer too worried about. Her blood pressure had been a little high but the doctor thinks it might just have been the inaccuracy of the blood pressure cuffs, so we aren't going to take her blood pressures regularly any more. Also, her latest blood work came back normal which is fantastic. When Hope was hospitalized back in September she had a lot of blood work done then and in the weeks following. Based on that blood work the doctors assumed Hope's kidneys were only working about about 50%. With this latest batch of blood work coming back normal they think that the spike we saw last fall was mostly if not all tied to the infection that hospitalized her and that her kidney function is far closer to normal than we thought.
Hope will be venturing back to Ann Arbor this week to begin her weekly pre-op visits for cochlear implant evaluations. She has to go 3 or 4 times in the next few weeks for evaluations and then once in March to meet the surgeon who will do the implants. Hope is not officially a candidate for the implant yet - she will have to have hearing tests done by the audiologist, with and without her hearing aids. If there is some evidence that she can hear but not well (even with the hearing aids) then she should be a candidate for the implants without further testing. If we don't see evidence of hearing then an MRI might be needed to confirm that her auditory nerve is present and at least some what developed. Hopefully these visits all go well; they make for long hard days for Hope.
Other great progress that Hope is making is that she seems to be reaching for some of her toys. She has grabbed on to a toy and picked it up once and she grabs for the toys in her crib. The is wonderful progress as one of her physical therapy goals is to develop an "active grasp", or taking the initiative to grasp an object instead of just holding on to it because it was placed in her hand.
Hope will be venturing back to Ann Arbor this week to begin her weekly pre-op visits for cochlear implant evaluations. She has to go 3 or 4 times in the next few weeks for evaluations and then once in March to meet the surgeon who will do the implants. Hope is not officially a candidate for the implant yet - she will have to have hearing tests done by the audiologist, with and without her hearing aids. If there is some evidence that she can hear but not well (even with the hearing aids) then she should be a candidate for the implants without further testing. If we don't see evidence of hearing then an MRI might be needed to confirm that her auditory nerve is present and at least some what developed. Hopefully these visits all go well; they make for long hard days for Hope.
Other great progress that Hope is making is that she seems to be reaching for some of her toys. She has grabbed on to a toy and picked it up once and she grabs for the toys in her crib. The is wonderful progress as one of her physical therapy goals is to develop an "active grasp", or taking the initiative to grasp an object instead of just holding on to it because it was placed in her hand.
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