Medical Updates

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. There has been, as you can imagine, a lot that has taken place.

First of all, I'm happy to report that Emily has been walking, almost running, for over 2 weeks now. Though she has a definate crook to her walk, she is becoming more and more able to balance herself and get around quite well.

Also, in the last week, she has had success in the potty training department. As we realized when we first met her, that she was close to have having been potty trained, we did not focus our attentions on that. However, now she is close to being fully trained.

As for medical, well, each week since the specialist we saw a month ago, she's had, on average, of 3 tests or visits to specialists.

Here is the rundown:

On May 5th, we made our visit to the Scottish Rite hospital of Dallas in which we were assigned to Dr. Dan Sucato. This hospital comes highly recommended for treating Emily's condition. They had asked if we would be willing to allow them to use Emily's results for research that could be used for future cases. We consented. It doesn't mean anything other than we allow them to share the results. She will not receive any type of experimental treatments.

Next was an MRI of her body, an MRI of her head, x-rays, a visit to the cardiologist, eurologist, neurologist, craniofacial specialist. From all of this, we learned that she is minus one kidney. Her heart is sound, except with a slight murmer, but nothing to be concered about. The neurologist explained to us that the first MRI did not show what she needed in order to make a good evaluation on the steps she will take in surgery, so she is ordering another MRI for this Friday. Surgery is scheduled for August 12th to untether the chord. And supposedly, 6 months later, an evaluation made. If all is well, they will proceed with correcting the spine.

I am going to post some more recent pics on http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder