Update, July 2nd, 2003

Kassidy had her eye appointment on Monday and her eyes are improving still. Her lazy eye would improve even more if we would patch her eye more than we do (like good parents would do).

Her urology appointment was cancelled yesterday because the nurses have pink eye (ahh...the luxury of working with children). So that is rescheduled in two weeks. They are going to run more tests on her bladder and hopefully find a cause to these Urinary Tract Infections.

However, we did still see the PM&R (physical medicine & rehabilitation) doctor yesterday. This was the first time seeing this doctor. We have to start following up with him since we no longer see the neurologists and neonatologists. He said after reading her file, he was not expecting the child that she is. He was expecting a "semi-handicapped" child. But nonetheless, he was very impressed with her right now. Even though she is still not walking, she is making a very strong effort to do so. He may want to brace her right foot and leg when she is about 2 or 3 to help it out a bit (she is kind of pigeon-toed and she does not have an arch). He does not want to do this now because 1) it may slow down her walking progress and 2) it will be very expensive to keep replacing the brace since her feet grow so quickly at this age. He also suggested possibly restraining her left arm and hand when she is about 2-3 years old too, so she has to use her right hand and arm more. Even though she uses both of her hands, she still favors her left side dramatically. Apparently, children her age shouldn't have a preference yet. He is afraid that her right side is going to suffer since she uses her left side so much. He compared it to her lazy right eye. If we don't patch her left eye and force her right eye to focus/work, her brain will disconnect and not tell it what to do. This could happen with her right hand as well. So we still need to focus on making sure she uses both hands all the time. We no longer have to go to U of M for physical therapy (hooray!). He will follow up with Kassidy in 4 months and if she has not made progress with walking then he will recommend physical therapy again. I tell you what, I don't think Kassidy or myself will miss physical therapy.

That's all folks. She's making slow, but great progress! One thing that is excelling very quickly is her temper!!!

Sharon Harding