The Appointment

Enjoying my favorite snack, yogurt!

Well, it wasn't as comprehensive as I had hoped it would be. We did not see a urologist. Apparently, they are all on vacation right now. And, because she already saw the Neurosurgeon, we did not see anyone from the neurology department. Basically, we spent the entire visit with a doctor that specializes in child developmental, answering developmental questions so they could decide her developmental age...the same thing we did at our adoption clinic appointment three weeks ago. I did find out that her overall developmental age three weeks ago was 10 months, and yesterday she placed at 21 months, so that was good news. She scored so low the first time because of her lack of verbalization. She is making leaps and bounds progress in that department! They made lots of comments about how smart she is and how good she looks. That was it. Come back in two months so we can see where she is then. In the mean time, we will get in to see a urologist and they will schedule the orthopedist once she gets out of her casts. I guess at this point everyone is just waiting to see if she will walk and how fast she can catch up on talking!

The main health issue now is her kidneys and bladder and at this point, we are doing all we can by catheterizing her every 3 hours. When she gets to see that elusive urologist, he will be able to tell us if she needs surgery and exactly what condition her kidneys are in. They all seem to be shocked that she has lived this long without major kidney damage considering she did not void at all, other than overflow. In spina bifida children, they are born with a bladder that works or they are born with a bladder that doesn't work, so obviously she has been this way her whole little life. The nurse told me that she had a patient whose parents didn't cath her like they were instructed and within 3 months she was in kidney failure! So, how is it possible that our baby girl is still alive! I believe in miracles.....

They did take another urine sample to do another urinalysis because the last one they did showed some pretty bad bacterias, hmmmmm, maybe that's where the urinary tract infection came from! Unfortunately, we will be out of town when the results come in so, we would have to take her to another urgent care facility to get a prescription if she needs one. Good grief! Hopefully, the Augmentin she just finished has knocked it all out!

On the bright side, the local Shriners here in Charleston have said they will reimburse us for our travel expenses, fuel and hotel, when we have to take Claire to the Shriner's hospital in St. Louis!!!! This is a huge relief! They were excited because we weren't asking for help with flights! They said they get lots of requests for flights and that is so expensive, but they were more than happy to pay for our fuel and hotel bills!

Isabel cutting up at the beach with her number one bestest friend in the world~MAGGIE MAE!

The kids have enjoyed these two weeks at home to reconnect with their friends and finish out the swim team season. Our last swim meet is tomorrow night! We spent a few hours today down at the beach with some friends and the kids have plans with friends for the rest of the week. Then we round-em-up and move-em-out again!

Claire, goofing off at a swim meet!