Mia's visits to the doctors and some other stuff

On Monday Mia saw her neurologist. She hadn't seen him in a year and a half, so it was about time! It's always an adventure going to see her neurologist. He doesn't do morning appointments, which we would prefer, and very often it's tough to get in to see him early in the afternoon. So we get late afternoon appointments and then we wait for a loooooooooong time. This time we had a 3.45 appointment, and we actually saw him at about 4.35. That's impressive for him. He does his thing with Mia - he tracks her eye movements and her reflexes and talks about her progress. It's only a little bit helpful, but it's something we like to do so he can take a look at her. We told him we would like to get her off the medication she's on, and he said that he wanted to see her in January anyway to see how she's adjusting to school and when he saw her he might be able to get rid of one of her meds. That would be neat. Krys has been worried about her focus and asked about ADD medication, and her doctor said that they'll check that out at school and he wouldn't have a problem putting her on something if it's necessary. It was a relatively painless visit. Of course, it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get home (it's usually about a twenty-minute drive) because the monsoon has been throwing these really bad storms at us for a while and part of the freeway near our exit flooded, which meant that the traffic was at a standstill. Mia was perfectly well-behaved, as she usually is, even when we were sitting in traffic.

On Tuesday she saw her pediatrician for her "we won't let you into school unless you have these shots" shots. She screamed bloody murder when the nurse gave her the shots, but otherwise she was fine. She weighs almost 37 pounds and is almost 44 inches tall. Her height-to-weight ratio isn't very good, but the doctor noted that the curve goes downward about this age and she should be fine. He always checks her out and notices that she's perfectly healthy, so we're not too worried about her weight, but it would be nice if she ate more. That battle is, of course, constant. So she's doing well on the health front.

She has also been doing well with her physical therapy. Her PT and I have been helping her walk recently, with him holding her hips while kneeling behind her and me holding her hands as a I walk backward in front of her. We've been doing this for over a year now, and recently she's gotten better. Her PT no longer has to move her feet for her, which was a pretty big step. When he's not holding onto her feet, her biggest problem is that her feet tend to cross over midline - her right foot will be on the floor, and her left leg will move forward and then come across her right leg to block its progress. So we have to try to get her to move it back to where it should be on her own, which is never fun. However, this past Monday, she didn't "scissor" her legs at all - the worst she did was place one foot directly in front of the other, which isn't bad. She walked very well and confidently, and without making a fuss. It was very heartening, because we're always looking for a "spark" in her head that will make her realize that she needs to learn how to do things. If she understands that learning these things will help her in her life, she might work harder at learning them. Occasionally we think she understands, but this session on Monday was very nice because she's always been most resistant to walking without much help. She zips around in her gait trainer, but when she's unfettered, she has some issues. We'll see if it continues on a positive path.

That's about all that's been going on. My parents were in town this past weekend, so I'll have to post some pictures of the girls with them. All is well in the Burgas household. Soon it will be school time. Won't that be fun!