A new doctor for Mia and some more tests! Yay, tests!

Mia is still having trouble digesting food, as she has for a long time, and after going through all the stuff her gastroenterologist could do and not figuring it out, we decided to take her to a new neurologist. Her long-time neurologist is not a bad doctor, but he's been seeing her for ten years, and we fear that he might be taking her for granted, in that he's not looking at her with fresh eyes so he might miss something. We decided to go see a new neurologist because we thought a new doctor might see something that we've all missed, because he might not have any expectations. We got a recommendation for a doctor, and a few weeks ago, I took Mia to see him.

He mentioned a couple of things. The anti-seizure medication that she takes - valproic acid - can decrease bone density, so he wanted to get her a scan to see if that was happening. Last Friday I took her to get the scan, and we're just waiting for the results. He mentioned the eating problems might be connected to a hormonal issue, so he wanted to take blood to see what was going on with that, and if we need to move on, we could take her to an endocrinologist. Stomach issues are apparently connected to hormonal issues, so we'll see what's going on with that. So this morning I took her to get her blood drawn. We'll see what happens when we get the results of that.

Her next appointment with the new neurologist is in about three weeks, so let's hope we have results for the tests by then. She's still not gaining weight, but we're able to get enough food in her to keep her going. So we're in a holding pattern for now. It's nice to get some other attempts to figure out what's going on with her - I'm not saying that her old neurologist wouldn't have ordered these tests, but I'm glad the new doctor wanted to try something else than going at it from her stomach. It all starts with the brain!

Norah's mash note

Do they still call them "mash notes"? They totally should.



You'll notice that this is a bit old - I've been lazy about posting recently. Anyway, apparently this was an assignment at school, for which the students had to write an anonymous letter to someone in their class explaining why they like that person. I'm not sure why this was, or if Norah was even really explaining it the right way - if you have kids, you know that their explanations often leave something to be desired - but here's the note she received. It's pretty awesome - she's "beautiful in the eye," she's a "pretty ladie," and "also stunning." Man, that's pretty impressive!

Norah, of course, thought this was hilarious. So far, Norah is unimpressed with boys' attention, which is the way we like it! I also just learned this week that she's popular with the first-graders. I was going around with two other members of the Parent Organization to deliver Teacher Appreciation Week cards, and in first grade, the principal asked how many kids knew Norah, and over half of them raised their hands. Some of them know her from Girl Scouts, but I'm not sure why the other ones know her. But she's popular with the grade below her!