Surgery on Thursday

And we have a time, too. We need to arrive at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital by 7:20am. Lily's hernia surgery will be at 8:40am. Please pray for her! Thanks!

It has been this kind of week

We are all in various stages of recovering from (and relapsing to) the flu. I myself have been laid up the past 4 days with it. But thankfully the fog is finally lifting today! Aaron had it last week and seemed to be better, but then he fell asleep at dinner which is not a good sign (but very cute).

Matt has an earache and threw up last night :-(. Lily seems ok but has goop coming out of her ears :-(. I've been giving her ear drops.

Mercies new every morning. And tomorrow is another day!

Early Start

Lily had a blast during her evaluation today at Early Start. New toys, adults who are trying to engage you and play with you - she loved it! It is amazing how through play these therapists are able to assess children. Her favorite thing - bubbles!

No pictures because while she was playing, a specialist was asking me questions about Lily's skills and behaviors. Everyone there was super nice and evidently loves children. Lily was evaluated on two assessments called the Batelle and the REEL 3. She was not just being evaluated on her speech but other development as well.

She is delayed enough that she does qualify for services! I am glad that she can receive the help she needs. Besides in her expressive and receptive language, the other area she is delayed in is called attention and memory. Remember how I have written about how restless Lily is, and how she has so little attention span? How she will look at books for just a few seconds before wanting to do something else?

Our service coordinator is supposed to call me in the next couple of days to get things underway. I am excited for Lily, and hopeful for her progress.

The specialist also told me that her cleft palate and lip make Lily's speech delay more of a medical issue than a developmental issue (which makes total sense). She advised me to bring it up at the next Cranio facial team appointment with the speech pathologist there at UCSF to examine Lily from a medical standpoint.

An unrelated photo. Lily is very very into shoes right now. Anyone's shoes. She is opinionated about which shoes she wants to wear, is determined to put them on herself (which she can't really do) and if you come to our house and leave your shoes at the front door, she might come and try them on. That's what happened here. Our friend, Guga, came over and Lily was very drawn to his boots!

Pediatric surgery consult

Today we met with the Ped surgeon to talk about repairing Lily's hernias. She has two of them (bilateral inguinal hernias if you want to be technical). She has had them for as long as we know, they were noted on her medical report we reviewed about her when we first found out about her.

Surgery has been set for March 1st. They will be repaired laparoscopically meaning using a camera and two small incisions where something like extended thin "arms" will go in and put in a stitch on each side. It is outpatient and the doctor said that other than not being able to bathe for two days post op, there are not any special instructions. Lily should be up and about right away, which is awesome!

Lots if of waiting room photos because it was supposed to be a short appointment, but yikes we got there at 1:15 and didn't leave until 3:30. Lots of waiting! Fortunately, I had the whole
crew with me and they helped entertain and look after one another.

We would appreciate your prayers for Lily!

A week of appointments...

Today we began the first of three appointments for Lily this week. Today she had her ENT follow up. The placing of ear tubes in December was rather overshadowed by her palate surgery, but yes both procedures had been done in one fell swoop.

The good news is that her left ear looks great. The bad news is that the tube in her right ear has fallen out already. It was confirmed that she has fluid in that ear again which means she has dampened hearing in that ear. :-(

The good news is that research has shown that normal hearing in one ear is enough for non school age children to acquire language and speech. Hopefully the other ear tube will stay in longer.

Tomorrow we are off to the pediatric surgeon. Lily has hernias that need to be surgically repaired. It is just a consultation tomorrow, and I will report back with more info.

Please pray for Lily. And me. I feel anxious thinking about all the medical stuff! Thursday we meet with early start in Santa Clara county to have her speech evaluated.

Photos of our trek in San Francisco and then of the happy patient :-). She was not thrilled though with someone looking in and probing her ears.