Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Team

Campbell has had a busy few weeks.  Its a good thing she has me to run her around to all her appointments!

We saw her physical therapist.  He was very impressed with her walking, of course.  :)  He says she is roughly at about 12-15 months for her gross motor skills.  (She is 21 months old, 18 months adjusted.)  We will only continue to adjust or correct her age until her 2nd birthday, which will be coming up here before too long.  He also recommended that she get orthotics for her tiny pronated feet.  Her low tone contributes to the fact that her ankle bones are rolling down, so these orthotic inserts will help to keep her feet in a neutral position.  Daddy went out and bought her a new pair of shoes for the occasion (We've actually never bought shoes for the girls before!  We've been so lucky to have so many given to us that we've never needed to.)  They are Nikes and they are very cute.  The orthotics fit right in, and no complaints from her so far!

Then we saw her gastroenterologist.  He was not happy to find that she had only gained 4 oz in 2 months.  She did however grow 2 inches (give or take) so that counts for something.  The reason I say give or take is because I find their height measurements to be very subjective, depending on who is doing the measuring.  Not just at this particular office, I'm talking at all of the different doctors we go to.  Getting the girls measured so much and so often, I've actually witnessed them shrink at times.  Even when the same person is measuring them time after time, its not always consistent. 

I walked into the GI office with some extra cans of Duocal, the caloric supplement Campbell no longer takes, thinking that I would donate it to the office so another patient could use this extremely expensive stuff.  Well, that visit didn't end the way I envisioned it.  Not only did he send the cans back with me, but he also sent us home with some more free samples.  Which I appreciated, but just the idea that she has to go back on this stuff is discouraging.  We add it to her food, either by mixing it in or sprinkling it on top, to help her take in additional calories.  I feel like she is doing so much better with her eating, so it is disappointing when we aren't seeing results. 

Her next appointment was with her speech pathologist for feeding therapy.  She was very happy to see Campbell eating so well, and in turn she was also disappointed to hear that she was back on the Duocal.  She said we could talk to the doc about a possible dietician referral.  She thought a dietician might be able to help us pack in more calories (in a healthy way I mean - we can't just slather everything in butter you know.  We don't want to give the child high cholesterol!) and then maybe we could get off the supplement.  Our speech path is also trying to come up with creative ways to get Campbell to drink more from the cup.  She does drink some, but she is still getting 2-3 bottles a day as well.  Next month, she will do a speech evaluation on Campbell to see where she is developmentally with that.

I just got a call from Campbell's developmental therapist, and we scheduled her bi-annual evaluation for June.  She hasn't seen Campbell in 6 months, so I'm anxious to see what she thinks.

Our IFSP meeting is scheduled for July.  This is when we meet with Campbell's entire Early Intervention care team, which consists of her physical therapist, occupational therapist, developmental therapist, speech pathologist, and our case worker.  And us of course.  We are considered part of the team too :)

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