Neurosurgeon appointment

We met with the neurosurgeon this morning and reviewed Whitney's CT scan that we had at the hospital a few weeks back. The shunt seems to be doing great. We are scheduled for a MRI for January which we will then use as a baseline for her for the future. Unfortunately she will need to be sedated for this since it will be 45 minutes in length. The CT was only 5 minutes. I do not care for sedating her but I will think of it again in the new year. Not something to worry about now.

We have started to think about beginning Whitney's alternative therapy again at the conductive learning center. We have taken a break since her hip surgery and have just been doing physical therapy. They unfortunately can do very litlle with the brace on and the brace is only allowed off one hour a day for bathing etc. We see the orthopedic doctor next week concerning her hip and in the hope that her hip is continuing to develop I will ask if we can begin to have more time with the brace off. We do not want to miss other developmental possibilities such as crawling and standing.

Fiona Wants Purple

Fiona informed me this morning that she wants a purple brace. "Whitney pink, Fiona purple brace" She was very serious and I had to smile. It also reminded me how thankful I am to have a healthy daughter. I am so thankful that Fiona does not need a brace and that she was able to point this out to me. There are so many things to be thankful for.
Just thought I would share. Have a wonderful week.

Appointments Gallore

We have had a few too many appointmnets this month. Thankfully it is drawing to a close and we only have one so far next month. Just in time for the holiday season. I need to back track a little to update you.

Pediatrician: 20 lbs and 4 ounces and 28 inches long. She is growing well and seems to be on track with language and fine motor development. We were thankful for a good report after her recent hospitalization.

Urologist: We had 2 appointments. The first at the hospital for an ultrasound. They looked at Whitney's kidneys, both front and back, and her bladder. The second appointment was this past Friday where we saw the doctor and were given the results of the ultrasound. Her kidneys are healthy and it appears that no damage was done during this last bladder infection. Her kidneys are growing at an appropriate rate. We are very thankful for this report. She will have many urinary track infections to come but in six months we can start a special yogurt formula and a cranberry supplement to try to control this.

Plastic surgeon: He checked the scar on her back and thought all looked well. The cast had caused her skin to break down along her scar but it has healed up nicely. We do not need to see him until next year! This is great news. I am daring to hope that the appointments are starting to become fewer and fewer between.

Next week we meet with our neurosurgeon and he will check her shunt. I hope he will go over the MRI we had while we were in the hospital. I am curious to hear more information. The first week of November we find out how Whitney's hip is doing through x ray. Please continue to pray that the brace is able to hold her hip in place and that the hip continues to form correctly.

Praise

The cast is off! We can hardly believe it. I have been smiling all day. Whitney had an x-ray with the cast on to check her hip and all looked well so we proceeded to remove the cast. I was nervous to see what was beneath the cast but the cast itself and her skin looked better than what I had hoped. We are so thankful! The first thing Whitney did was put her toes in her mouth. I think she missed them. We then had an x-ray taken with her brace on to see if the brace was able to keep the hip in place. It worked. The hip had grown sufficiently in the past 6 weeks enabling the brace to do its magic. Whitney and I began dancing a little in the exam room and our doctor reminded me that this is progress in the right direction but we are not out of the woods yet (I still wanted to dance). We compared a before and after x-ray and I was able to see that the cup of her hip is no longer as straight as it once was. It still has a way to go but it has started to develop! Our next appointment is in 4 weeks when we will check how it is doing. Whitney is to wear the brace at all times until then when we can reassess. If the hip does decide to come out of socket again there is little to nothing we can do. Thank you all for your diligent prayers and please continue to pray that God, in his healing hand, will continue to form our little Whitney's hip socket.

One year ago we were in Philadelphia at the beginning of this journey. Thanks for walking with us as we continue.
Matt, Susan, Fiona, and Whitney