UPDATES 6-03-2008

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

Lauren did not have much going on last week as far as appointments and she seemed very happy to be enjoying more time at home and outside. She is really working on pulling herself up to a standing position. It is a little scary to watch. I am nervous that she will tip over, but then she either makes enough noise so one of us sits her back down or she slowly moves herself back into a sitting position. She still likes to climb on top of all of us when we are laying down on the floor. There is no stopping her.

Lauren has a lot of trouble gaining weight due to her severe acid reflux. The exciting news this week is that she has reached a new high weight of 15 pounds, 10 ounces. She tends to lose weight when she is hospitalized or has a lot of procedures, so we are glad to see her weight rebounding quicker than it has in the past. Once she is 20 pounds, we can turn her carseat around in the car, so we are really hoping that she will continue this upward trend.

We have a lot of appointments this week. She had spinal MRIs this past Monday (6/02). Lauren is getting more and more aware of the hospital and the people that take her away for procedures. She started crying as soon as we got in the elevator to go to the holding area for MRIs. The sight of the anesthesiologist made her start to gag and reflux. It is sad to the people that work there that Lauren has gone through so much that she knows when to be afraid. I asked if I could take her back to the MRI area so that she might calm down. They even let me hold her until she had fallen asleep with the gas mask on. I don't know if they would ever let me do that for surgery, but it was so much easier on Lauren with me holding her. I was so glad they let me be there. It is hard to see her so upset and feel like I cannot do anything for her. Lauren has been very tired and irritable since the general anesthesia and spent most of today sleeping. She should be back to her normal self by tomorrow morning, I hope. We will see Dr. Tomita on Thursday morning to find out the MRI results and next steps. On Friday, Lauren has a hearing test and a post op follow up with the ENT who placed her ear tubes in April.

She has a few appointments scheduled in the next month. She will get another steroid injection around her g tube. We will see Dr. Davis again, who is a neuro-ophthalmologist, to make sure that Lauren's vision has not changed. She is slightly nearsighted. We also have a family meeting with Lauren's Early Intervention therapist's to make goals for the next 6 months. We are excited to document all of her gross motor accomplishments, since the last family meeting.

As always, thank you for all of your support of Lauren. We are so fortunate to have people who care so much about Lauren and want to hear how she is doing. Have a great week!