On the way home from Kosair. Recovering from her ABR test.
Well, we have good news........and ....more unknown which means more questions to be answered. The good news is Sadie's ears are fine. She doesn't even need tubes. If there was fluid in her ears at the time she visited her pediatricians office, it's gone now. All parts of Sadie's ears are perfectly well and working just fine. She does not have a hearing disorder that involves the ears. The questions arise now, because she still does not respond to sound like she should, and like she used to. The auditory dept. at Kosair suggest that Sadie be evaluated at the Wycoff Center (which I know nothing about, don't even know if I've spelled it correctly) There, Sadie will be thoroughly evaluated on her development. Right now the assumption is Sadie's hearing loss may have something to do with her brain not processing what she hears. So we may be dealing with a neurological issue more than a hearing issue. We have an appointment with Sadie's neurologist on Monday. When we see him we will discuss these matters further and decide where to go from here.
The results from her overnight EEG were good. They said that Sadie is not having any nocturnal seizure activity. Althought it still showed the same abnormalities as before, the fact that the seizures are gone makes moving forward so much easier.
Sadie is beginning to achieve more and more. Walking more behind her pusher, clapping her hands, banging toys together, taking things in and out of containers, and many more each day. We have been very happy with her success and her therapy with First Steps.

Scooter's new pet. He calls her Dorothy, just like Elmo's pet goldfish. Scooter is a very good pet caretaker. He says she's hungry, he says she's crying, and he tells her goodnight. But when I offered to tuck her in too, he just laughed and said "No mommy, that's silly!"

Sadie is doing well, (all things considered). She is still showing obvious signs that she isn't identifying sound. Her ABR (auditory brain response) test is Thursday Jan 24th. We will know more about her hearing disorder after we get the results from that. Another issue is that her therapists say Sadie has some low muscle tone and some tightening in her neck and trunk which causes her to have poor posture and a slight head tilt. She has stretches that she must endure often, she hates them, but they help a lot. As far as her motor skills, she is still not walking and she is still not using her left side as equally as her right, but therapy is helping a lot there too. As a matter of fact Sadie clapped her hands tonight for the first time since before her seizures back in September! I was so excited, it was such a happy sight to see. No words yet either, but this will change once we know the plan of action involving her hearing. Sadie's fine motor skills are also improving, but more so on her right side than her left. A big challenge that we are still dealing with is Sadie's sleep at night. She wakes up often and sleeps in fragments. Some nights better than others. We had an overnight EEG done this past Wed. night to see if it is seizure activity that is sparking her brain and causing her to wake up. We won't have the results from that until Tuesday. Depending on those results will determine if Sadie needs to have a sleep study done or not. We do have a consultation appointment with Dr.Gozal (a sleep study doctor) next month. Sadie's next neurologist appointment is Jan 28th. I plan on asking if we can wean another medication. Until then.............

Scooter, Scooter, Scooter, what a guy! First he poses in the snow, then he poses (nude that is, right after bath) on his sister's pretty pony.

Brother and sister hanging out and having fun!

Sadie was digging in the pantry and found mommas Oreo's. She had a yummy'ol time!

Well, we now have a new hurdle to jump with Miss Sadie. She had her hearing tested (First Steps advised due to some of the issues we had been seeing in Sadie). We went to Dr.s Hearing Care to see Dr. Murphy. After Dr. Murphy tested her middle and outer ear, she was concerned. She said Sadie has signifigant hearing loss and that she wants her inner ear to be tested at Kosair. So for now, according to Dr. Murphy, we just have to wait until the test to determine the plan. Because it could just be fluid in the inner ear, which she is advising Sadie to have tubes put in since she is still having ongoing sinus infections. Or it could be temporary hearing loss due to all the drugs she was on during both hospital stays. Or it could be a neurological issue due to all the seizures. Or it could be an inner ear disorder. So once she has her inner ear tested,(Jan.24th) we'll know more.