Skip to content

Therapy has begun

by teri on January 19th, 2010

This morning, we had 6 visitors come to the house to do their evaluation of Gabrielle:  PT/OT/Speech/Develpmental/a nurse consultant and the service coordinator.  They all assessed her on their goal score sheet.  All of them agreed, she is at a 3-4 month old level.  She is 7 months, so she is quite behind, but not so severe that she can’t catch up. Things def. could be worse!! She has qualified for PT and OT both twice a week and speech starting at once a week but moving towards twice a week soon.  She tolerated all the handling and movements well but certainly voiced her opinion when she was unhappy or working too hard. I am so excited to get this started.  Now that we are home, I don’t know quite what the next step is.

I am also quite overwhelmed with emotions lately.  An 18 month old HLHS boy just died for no real reason, and came so unexpectedly.  Another little friend that I have known since Gabi was born died right after Christmas.  His parents are absolutely devasted.  Another little heart friend is waiting for a new heart and is not doing well as she waits at CHW.  Another friend just had her Norwood and had a tough few days, but is now pulling through.  I know that every day with our children, not just heart children ,but healthy ones as well is a gift because you never know what might happen.  I was trying to get involved in different heart groups with families of heart kids to get support but I just don’t want to think about it everyday.  Is that weird?  I don’t want our lives based on her heart condition and how fragile she still is.  My perspective has changed so much.I feel very disconnected from everyday things…maybe it’s just the winter blues…

Enough of my craziness, gabi is doing great.  Everything is really good, except for the feedings. That is still horrid.  She is still pukey and very gaggy but I have been told that it will get better over time.  I just realized it has been more than a month since her most recent surgery. wow. Even these dreary winter days go by pretty quickly.

Hope everyone is hanging in there during these brutal winter days.  Can you tell I don’t like winter??? Every january/february, I try so hard to come up with a scheme to move somewhere warm and then when May FINALLY rolls around, and I forget about it!

Love to you all-

Teri

From → Gabrielle Updates

4 Comments
  1. Heather Safford permalink

    That is such good news about the therapy…Sean tested at 3 months at age 1, and only qualified for each therapy 1xweekly. And he’s doing pretty well now! Gabi will make HUGE strides. You are doing all the right things. When you get the schedule, let us know if we can take the other two some of the times, if that makes things easier. Sean and Meghan would always love some friends over. :)

  2. Kristi Brull permalink

    I am glad things are going well! Is Gabi going to have a speech therapist who is a feeding specialist? Did they recommend developmental therapy? There are other services as well that are available. If you need any names of therapists let me know. Are you going through CFC #6? Let me know.
    Take Care – Kristi

  3. Melissa Smith permalink

    Glad to hear the therapists are now helping out…..you will see Gabi do some incredible things in the months to come….watch out!! She will catch up in no time! Thanks for keeping us posted. Melissa, David, and Caden :-)

  4. Ann Hoesly permalink

    Oh Teri, you spoke my words in this update. It IS so hard to decide how to separate your lives from “the condition” or other kids/families living like us. The unexpected losses are the toughest for me – - but it sometimes helps me stay on alert when I think Morgan is sick. It’s like it tunes up my “gut feeling” about things – it keeps me on the edge in a good way. I know you’ll figure out the balance.

    I’m glald to see Gabi is doing so well and is going to get services! The more services the better I always say!! (Just be sure all those people scrub up before they touch her :) )

    A

Comments are closed.