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So with Andrew being born, and the holidays- there was a bit of quiet time with appointments… not to say it was quiet time for us (visiting, running around getting things done etc) but still- nothing going on with Mary Elizabeth’s surgeries or anything so it was quiet in that respect.

Mid-January brought on some appointments and lots of phone calls to make some for the future too.

About 2 weeks ago we had her preschool evaluation. Basically they did some testing on her cognitive skills and abilities. Since she’s enrolled in the Early Intervention program and receives services (just speech) they had to give the district a recommendation on whether she’d need special education. Of course, we are doubting that and it was apparent after her testing they agreed because they said what we already know…
Mary Elizabeth is very smart, right on target and the only delay is with her speech – which is due only to her physical inability, and not cognitive as she does understand language.
Still they aren’t the deciding factor- just give the recommendation when we go in for a meeting to discuss her case further.

I have to say, and those around her often will agree- her speech has come very far in the past 6 months or so. She went from merely saying ma and da to saying pretty much everything- granted you may not understand it all- she still says it or tries to. Some words are very clear though.
Before- she was doing only one syllable words; Now she’s doing more complex words and putting words together and speaking sometimes in very short sentences (ie: "no throw my mouse"- as she had a little toy mouse that someone threw and she decided to reprimand them!). She’ll also be found having a whole conversation while playing pretend with a phone, but she talks so fast and does a lot of jibber jabber that we can only catch a few words of what she’s really saying.

Anyway, the preschool stuff is not over because we will then have a meeting soon (as mentioned) to discuss her medical needs and everything of concern when she starts preschool (in September). Our hopes and prayers are that she can attend the preschool that we want her to go to. It is at our church and they have an excellent program, excellent people running it and ME will be surrounded by lovely children – some in which she may already know. So more appointments to come on that.

We also found out in order to schedule her next surgery (sclerotherapy/injections) they would like to see her in the office to probably do an ultrasound on her face, discuss the agent they will use to inject the site and just evaluate/look at her. We are going to the city Monday after work so by Monday night we should have a surgery date.

Then we had to schedule her ENT (ear, nose, throat) dr check up as well so that is coming up, but is just a check up as she gets them a few times a year since she has a trach ( which may be a little less often than some trach kids but that is due to the fact that she has so many specialists always checking on her anyway).

We’ll be updating again once we have a surgery date. Keep Mary Elizabeth in your prayers as always 🙂