Neurology Appointment

 
 

First things first! Here are a couple of cute pictures of Evie and "Little Louie." It looks like Louie is trying to tell her a secret. She must not have liked what he had to say though, because she in turn tries to poke his eye out! Hee hee. Louie is now a big brother to Gabriel (just a month old!). They, along with their parents, are sweet friends of ours who just moved into the neighborhood several months ago (but we've known them for years).

Here is the latest news on Evie...

We had an appointment with a pediatric neurologist this morning. The doctor was very nice—very calm and soft-spoken. Here’s what we’ve got, based on what he said and questions we asked:

--He does believe the stroke occurred in-utero
--We don’t know the cause…we’ll be doing further tests to see if we can come up with a “why”
--Evie seems to be doing very well considering what she went through, which bodes well for her progress
--He believes she will be fine speech-wise & will be able to catch up motor-wise (but may not be an athlete—fine with us!)
--He wants an “echo” (EKG) done and to get the bloodwork back before eye surgery to be sure there are no clotting issues
--Without having an official diagnosis (a “why”), we will probably need to have more tests done (on me too) to rule out the possibility of this happening in a future pregnancy
--I asked if the echo, bloodwork, etc might reveal something “even worse” (since I seem to always worry over this in my mind) and he said he believes the worst already happened and that these tests will just fill in the blanks to give us more information (Praise God!)
--There is a chance Evie could have seizures due to the “dead tissue” in her brain, but when we asked him to put a number on it he said maybe 30-50% chance. He didn’t seem overly concerned about this either though…it just might mean medication. (and he said if it happens just turn her on her side and time how long it lasts—usually it’s 30 sec. to a minute…the “put a stick in their mouth” is evidently a myth—there’s your random fact for the day!) ;o)

We have the ECI evaluation on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to us rolling our sleeves up and getting this therapy under way (which I’m hoping the actual therapy will start next week). Evie has been INITIATING with her left hand lately (“Lefty” as we call her left hand), reaching out to grab things even when her right hand is available. This is new! “Lefty” is clumsy but I love that she is trying. She’ll even sometimes follow our directions to “try it with Lefty” or “say Hi with Lefty.” How many 15 month olds do you know who know their right from their left? ;o)

Again, thank you so much for the prayers! In the last several days I have felt a much greater peace about things and I know that is attributed to the power of prayer.