Hearing Test: Part 2

Andrielle had her follow-up hearing test today. We met with Dr. Candi Brown at Oak Crest Elementary School in Springville, UT. She was amazing. She was very sweet and patient with Andrielle. She got her tests done in just minutes and had us on our way. Good news - she passed! The doctor is assuming that she didn't pass last time because they couldn't get her to stay still and quiet for the whole length of the test (makes sense to me). So, we're not dealing with hearing issues; YAY! They will continue to test her yearly at school, but my understanding is that is standard for all kids. On another note, I had Andrielle's IEP (individualized education plan) with her preschool teacher, speech therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and class aide. She is progressing really well in all of those areas. They are adding a fine motor specialist that she'll work with weekly at school. Her occupational therapist also has her wearing a core stabilizer body suit thing to help with her core strength. It basically looks like a tight bathing suit. It doesn't bother her too much, it's just a bummer for me because her outfits don't look quite as cute (ya, I know that's not very important at all, but I'm vain). The body suit is already doing a great job, I can tell a difference in the way she walks, sits, and stands up. More good news, her preschool teacher and speech therapist said she will definitely be kept at East Meadows Elementary next year for her final year of preschool. Her speech therapist said, "There is no way we're letting anyone else take her!". It's nice to know her teachers and therapists like her and care about what happens to her. I'm very happy that she'll be staying at that school! It's been awesome for her. We're definitely blessed.

Hearing Test

I haven't written in a while, mostly because things have been going pretty good! Andrielle started her second year of preschool at East Meadows Elementary with Mrs. Kemble. She has been progressing amazingly and her scores have all been improving. Her therapists have all been really impressed with the progress she's making (yay!). Today, they had a hearing screening at school. Andrielle, unfortunately, did not pass the screening in her left ear, so I have scheduled an appointment with another elementary school in Springville, UT that does a more advanced screening test (for free). So, that's scheduled for Nov 15, which means for the next two weeks, I get to stress over it. (Sweet.) There is a chance it's just an infection or congestion; but I'm not holding my breath, especially since she hasn't been sick. We also switched pediatricians. Andrielle and Grayden are now seeing Dr. Paxton at the Spanish Fork Clinic (he came highly recommended by my dad, who now works there, a friend, and by Andrielle's speech therapist from Kids Who Count). I've already met with him once for Grayden's 1st birthday wellness check. I am very happy I switched, I think it was the best move for us. I think he'll take my concerns with Andrielle a lot more seriously than our previous doctor did. I'm looking forward to Andrielle's 4-year well check at the end of November. I'd like to see about having her tested by a spectrum disorder doctor in Salt Lake. Somehow, everything seems to fall during the holidays when it comes to Andrielle's testing. Oh well, I'm glad we're getting it done and hopefully we'll get some good answers!

E.R.

We got home from my parent's house last night and put Andrielle down for bed. About 30 minutes later, we heard her crying in her room. Gavin went up to check on her, filled her sippy with water and came back downstairs. A few minutes later, she was crying again. I went up to check on her this time, thought I saw something on her face and turned on her light. Her whole face, hands, and shirt were covered with blood. I brought her downstairs to check her out and get her cleaned up. Her nose was pouring blood out of both nostrils. I sat her up in her high chair, gave her a snack, and cleaned off most of the blood. We thought she just had just bonked her nose and had a bad bloody nose. But it kept bleeding. I was cleaning her nose off and noticed what I thought was just a yucky booger in her nose and tried to get it out and noticed it was more than that. I called for Gavin to bring me some pliers. He laughed at me and suggested tweezers instead (good idea, Honey). I pulled the thing out of her nose (a rhinestone jewel!!) but there was still something else up there (I was guessing it was the paper backing to the jewel). I tried to get it, but it was too far up and I was concerned I would just shove it up further. So we packed up the kids and headed to the E.R. We got checked in and after a bit of a wait we saw the doctor. He pinned her arms behind her back, swaddled her up in a sheet, had another doctor and two nurses hold my daughter down, and had to suction her still-bleeding nose. The then had to use this thing to pry her nose hole open and then used some alligator pincher thing to get the thing out of her nose. It was a dime-sized white button! Crazy girl. He offered it back to me (no thanks), and gave her a new blankie to take home. Andrielle kept saying "Bye! Bye!" to the nurses and doctors and when they said goodbye to her, she said, "See you soon!" Lol - they laughed and told her they hoped they wouldn't be seeing her soon - haha! And we headed home. By the time we got home it was almost 1 am. Poor Gavin had to go into work today after barely any sleep. I had Andrielle take the day off preschool and we spend the morning watching Disney Junior in bed.

March update

I met with Andrielle's teacher and her O.T. last week to go over some of the goals the O.T. has for Andrielle. I really like Andrielle's therapists, especially her O.T. She's so funny and has some really great ideas for things I can be doing to help Andrielle at home. It was nice spending some time in the classroom with Andrielle. I miss going to Kids Who Count because I don't feel quite as involved as I used to. It was good getting to sit in on her class and just watch her. I've seen so much progress in the past few weeks. She's picked up a lot of new words, can count to 12, and can label a few letters and numbers. It's great seeing her progress.

Andrielle has qualified for the summer preschool program (yay!). She will get to go to 2 days a week for 6 weeks in the middle of the summer. I'm really glad she won't be going all summer without seeing any therapists. She will be staying at East Meadows Elementary for summer school, but we haven't been told yet whether or not Miss Nicole (Mrs. Kemble) will be her teacher, though.

She also gets to stay at East Meadows with Miss Nicole next year and will get 4 days a week (Mon-Thurs). She'll ride the same bus and stay in the same class. I'm really happy about this! I keep feeling like Andrielle is getting special treatment, and it's awesome! Whatever the reason is, I'm not complaining! I'm so grateful for these programs and all that they are doing for my little girl.

Genetic Testing Results

We got a call from Dr. Bennett last night with Andrielle's Genetic testing results. Everything is normal! It was kind of bitter-sweet. Most of me was saying, "Yay, yay, yay!!" but another part was asking, "ok, now what?". I feel like we've exhausted all of our testing options. Everything has come back negative and normal, which is awesome, but leaves me with no answers. I would love to know what it is we're dealing with and what to expect in the future. I guess we just keep doing what we're doing and hope that one day we'll have the answers.

Polar Express party at preschool

Andrielle had a Polar Express Christmas party at preschool last week. She wore pajamas, and Santa even came!

Genetic Test

We just back from the doing the blood work for the genetic testing at the doctor's office. Poor Andrielle just does not like needles (but, really, can you blame her?). Her veins are also really hard to find. They finally found her vein on her left arm and just after they started collecting the blood they needed, her vein collapsed. So they had to use her right arm. Thankfully, they were able to get enough blood from that arm. They're sending in her blood samples and we should have the results back in 2-3 weeks (but it could be a little longer because of the holidays). Hopefully this is the last test we will have to have done for a while.