UPDATES 3-18-2008

Thank you for visiting our site and welcome to our weekly update on Lauren.

Lauren is on a roll these days. She actually put 2 feet down fairly flat on the floor and was able to balance herself enough to go up a tall step at my brother Marty's house this past Sunday. Once she did it once, she wanted to keep trying it. She got it every time from then on. We were getting complacent about her not attempting to stand or climb stairs. Now, the fun really begins! This past week, she also has enjoyed splashing in Sarge's (our dog's) water bowl and taking his food out one piece at a time and putting it on the floor. Her big sister, Katelyn, used to do the same exact thing. Needless to say, Sarge does not seem excited about it and probably feels like he shouldn't have to go through this again.

Last week, Lauren did have her Brain and Spinal MRIs on Thursday as planned. It was a relief to get those done because the general anesthesia appointments are very hard to get. We need to wait another 10 days for the results though. The waiting is the hardest part!

We also followed up with the plastic surgeon about Lauren's surgical wounds. She has had a problem with her skin healing since she was born. The surgeon felt that Lauren's head wound is looking much better now. This was where her first VP shunt was placed in the summer of 2006. Her g tube site is the bigger issue now. Lauren has had granulation tissue buildup around the site since her g tube was put in for the first time in October 2006. Over the past 5 months or so, Lauren has had keloids starting to form around it. These are large and make the g tube stick up further than it should. Eventually, the g tube may not work correctly. We need to see a pediatric surgeon to figure out if there is anything we can do to stop the keloids from continuing to grow. One idea that we have heard is that they could inject steroids into it. The problem with that is Lauren is so small that the amount needed could be considered dangerous to her system. Lauren is just one ounce shy of 15 pounds, as of this morning.

On the feeding front, Lauren actually drank from her honey bear cup for the first time during speech therapy last week. We could not believe it. The cup is ideal for Lauren because all she has to do is squeeze the bear and the liquid comes up through the straw. She is not able to coordinate drinking from a regular straw up until now, so we needed to find her something that she could handle. We hope that she is willing to keep trying to drink liquids and that it was not just a fluke.

Thank you for your continuing support of Lauren!