Neurologist Appointment

Have you ever seen the movie "The Back Up Plan", the one where JLo is pregnant?  Yes, I enjoy watching those type of silly romantic comedies.  Anyway, there is a scene where a father is explaining to a soon-to-be dad what parenthood is like.  "It is just awful, really, really awful and then something beautiful happens and then it is just awful, awful, awful and then something beautiful happens."  This is the roller coaster we have been riding lately.  However I would like to report that all members of our household survived Daddy's first day back at work.  Although I don't know if it really counts because for the first part of the day K,T, and F were at a friend's house while I took E to the doctor.

The doctor.  So today was Eliana's appointment with the Neurologist.  We have decided to mostly stick with  the team of specialist associated with D. C. Children's Hospital and the doctor we saw today is part of that group.  You never know about traffic around here so we left early just to make sure we got there on time.  We ended up making great time and arrived early enough to visit the cafe for a little date and literally stopped to smell lots and lots of roses.  It was a beautiful moment.  I think she really enjoyed having some one on one alone time with me and I definitely enjoyed being able to totally focus on her for a few hours.  The waiting room rocks.  Lots of fun stuff for her to do.  While all the other children in the waiting room went goggley eyed in front of a sponge bob cartoon, Elie had fun playing with this large pile of colorful foam blocks.  We practiced our colors and numbers while we were waiting.  I continued to be amazed at her intellect.  I wrote down the numbers 1, 2 and 3 with a pen on a piece of paper.  She then wrote the numbers underneath, saying each one in English, writing them perfectly... aside from the fact that the 3 was backwards.  This was the first time I have practiced writing numbers with her.  Everyone who can speak Mandarin keeps telling us she is so smart,  I definitely agree.  Our English immersion program is going great and she can already say many things in English, like  "stop it Missy", "no touch", and "swimming".  We work on the important things at our house.

The outcome of the visit brought no shocking new news, just affirmation of what we already expected to hear.  It appears she had some type of brain injury in utero or during birth that caused the ventricles on the left side of her brain to swell permanently and we should not expect it to get any worse.  From the limited images we have from China, it appears that the ride side is not affected.  He believes that if this is the case there shouldn't be any problems for her cognitively, it is just all motor.  And in regard to that he believes that she will respond very well to therapy.  We need to have some imaging redone here to get a better look at her brain to know for sure, but it looks very good so far.  I really liked this doctor and Eliana seemed to like him also.  Win-win.

Last Tuesday we had a bunch of blood work done and heard back today about the results.  Most things look really great.  But she has no immunity to regularly vaccinated diseases even though it was reported to us that she had them all.  Same story as Faith.  So either they weren't stored properly or they were diluted or not actually given.  It made me mad.  Kevin didn't think it should make me mad, but it just does.  What was in those syringes anyway?  So we will have to start over again.  We did learn, though, that she had the chicken pox at some point.  Wonder if she remembers that?

The rest of the afternoon went the way most days around here are going - moments of giggling and laughter, moments of the kids playing together and connecting, followed by tantrums, crying and fighting.  We keep reminding ourselves that it has only been just over a week home, but each day feels like a marathon. On a positive note, the neighbor children and my boy's best friends are back from their summer in Korea.  This makes a world of difference in our day and getting the boys to run out their energy without having to drive anywhere.  Hooray!!

We had a huge blessing tonight of dinner delivered to us by a dear friend.  Eliana ate about half the pan.  Kevin is hopeful we are raising the next hot dog eating champion.



Comments

  1. oh Sonya, you sound like you're doing really well. I'm so excited to hear about these sweet moments with Eliana and with your whole family. Even the rough moments seem to be beautiful opportunities to glorify God, which you really seem to be doing. Thanks for letting us hear how it really is.. the good and the bad. You've made an incredibly loving and sacrificial choice here and I am so proud of you! Keep working hard Mama!

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