still with us?

It probably goes without saying, it's been pretty crazy this past week, hence the time gap since the last post. Our apologies!

Georgia (and all of us!) has been quite busy: mucho therapies, a day trip to Winter Park last Saturday, multiple follow-up doctor's appointments (neurology, neurosurgery and her regular pediatrician), orientation at her new preschool, learning some new songs, meeting a fellow brain surgery patient at church, dancing and continuing to totally wow everyone who sees her. In essence of time, hope you don't mind some bullet points to summarize the past week...

• Hospital Follow-ups - We met with both Dr. Knupp (Neurologist) and Dr. Handler (Neurosurgeon) last week. Both are very pleased with how well Georgia is doing. We forgot to get a photo of Georgia with Dr. Knupp, but below is a shot with Dr. Handler. Our plan for now is to continue to wean off one of the seizure medications (vigabatrin, the one that can cause vision issues). They typically don't do a repeat EEG or MRI until 1 year post-op, though Dr. Knupp did give us the option to get an EEG sooner than that if it would make us sleep better at night. The big question is - is there any seizure activity on the left side? There hasn't been and we see no evidence of seizures, but man, it would sure make us feel better knowing that side is still in the clear. We see Dr. Knupp again in 6 weeks so will decide by then.
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• Pre-School - Georgia had her pre-school orientation last week and will be starting actual school this Wednesday. We really, really like the school - and Georgia seemed to as well during the preview day! It's a 1/2 day program, 4 days per week, but we are starting her a bit more slowly (2 days) so we can make sure she still has time (and energy!) for her therapies. She has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and will be receiving PT, OT, Speech and Special Ed services every week, though only 30min of each so we will need to keep up with regular therapies as well. The team seems wonderful from what we have seen so far...we just can't believe she is already headed to pre-school. Time flies! Here is Georgia in her new classroom:
  



• Local trips - We got up to Winter Park last weekend, and did a local "hike" at "Lair O' the Bear" in Morrison this past Saturday. Georgia seems to really be experiencing things now, from throwing rocks into a stream to riding a mini-gondola to playing these cool xylophones that were all over Winter Park. She is so much more inquisitive and attentive to things now and can even recall past events, which she was not able to do before surgery. We're hoping to get over to the zoo this week - can't wait to see her reaction now to all of the animals (last time, she was only excited about eating the popcorn! :) Some photos from our adventures:

Winter Park playground

Throwing stones in Bear Creek


Making music


Mini-Gondola Ride



• Therapy - Her schedule now is 5 sessions per week: 2 ea of speech and OT and 1 for PT. She continues to get stronger, both physically and mentally. We aren't seeing much use of her left hand yet but as we think back, it took her nearly 2 years and an intense constraint therapy program after the first surgery to really see good use out of the hand. This is not uncommon for someone who has had a neurological insult - more area of the brain cortex is required for hand and face use, thus when there is a hit to that area, the deficits are more severe and it takes longer for the brain to form new pathways. She will not regain full use of her left hand, but we are hopeful that she be able to use it more than just a "helper hand," as those in the business call it. Here are some highlights from therapy:

Entering therapy with a spring in our step!


Working hard on velcro pictures


Learning the Frog Song with OT Kevin (Gambro folks: does this guy look familiar? Hint: he's the brother of our Salesforce.com guru...)


Treadmill training




• Dancing Fool! - Georgia has her groove back! Not only has she picked right back up on all of her singing, she is also adding to her repertoire ("I've been Working on the Railroad," the Barney Theme Song and "Little Frog"), and DANCING. Here she is entertaining us...and her little sister :)
  
  

Bed beckons - it's going to be another busy week! We'll try to be better at getting posts up in a more timely fashion. Please bare with us! Hope you are all doing well in your respective corners of the country.

p.s. Lillian helped with this post :)