Neurosurgery Update

Cara had her *gasp* 9 month surgical follow-up with her neurosurgeon on Wednesday. While incredibly brief (he was running 20 minutes late and we had another appointment to make), we learned that her shunt appeared to be functioning well, and that in the past 6 months, her head circumference has only grown about a 1/4" of an inch. While she should be "growing into" her large head, a little bit of growth is normal because, well, children grow. He was also pleased to hear of Cara's progress in therapy and wants her to keep up the good work. As long as she remains stable, we do not have to see him again until October! I hope that we, again, get to report that all is well.

I, of course, had other questions to ask of her neurosurgeon but 1) there just wasn't time and 2) I really didn't think that he would have the answers since they were not medical questions. I am waiting to hear back from his staff assistant about a shunt alert card and about the existence of hydrocephalus support groups in my area.

In other news, thanks to Gabriel's Life, I have met two other moms who have children with hydrocephalus and we are hoping to get together soon. One even lives in the same city as we do. It will be interesting to see what else we have in common. I am really looking forward to creating a network of friendship and support, for both Cara & I.

Another bullet dodged

We met with Cara's occupational therapist last week to discuss whether or not Cara would benefit from a soft-form hand brace to help her keep her palms flat, especially when she crawls. We were concerned because Cara tends to crawl using her fists or with her fingers partially curled up.
Her therapist decided that, hopefully, in time, Cara will open up her palms on her own as she gets more proficient in her crawling and used to bearing weight on her palms. She said, that if Cara didn't open her hand up for other activities (such as clapping, waving, etc) that it would be more of a concern but that since Cara does a lot of "open hand" activities, we could just take the "wait and see approach". We are going to give Cara another month of so to see if she starts crawling with her hands open. If not, we may readdress the need for braces.
Another adaptive device ruled unnecessary! Keep up the great work and progress Cara!

First PT session

Cara had her first official PT session at Children's Hospital yesterday. She did very well for almost the entire time. Her therapist, Karen, worked with her on reaching (using her neck & torso), rotating her body, putting weight on her legs and playing on all fours. She didn't seem to mind being in "crawling mode" as much as before, so we are making some progress! We left the therapy gym with a handout of things to do at home to keep her moving forward. Cara will be going one a week for awhile and then we will re-evaluate and see how she's doing...possibly cutting back to twice monthly. Cara really likes Karen and loves to play with her.

We also had a home visit from a service coordinator for Developmental Pathways. Cara's paperwork has been submitted so, within the next month, we should be able to start services for her there. She has a multi-disciplinary evaluation with them on the 25th to get a better idea of what they think she needs in the way of therapy. We're excited because it's 100% free!