Appointments and More Appointments

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One of the unfortunate things about cerebral palsy (CP) are the many co-occurring health issues that go along with it. Because of this, those with CP have more doctors, specialists, and other kinds of providers they see on a regular basis. While the CP itself mainly affects the muscles, other areas of the body are affected as well, which results in more medical challenges.  For instance, besides CP, some of other Faith’s health issues include: ·          Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other digestive issues ·          Scoliosis ·          Bowel and bladder incontinence ·          General anxiety Because of these co-occurring conditions, we have more appointments than the average person. At times, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Faith enjoying a nice fall day On September 23 rd , we ended up in the E...
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A Surprise Party for Faith's Uncle

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Faith loves surprising people. There's only one problem - she's not very good at it. She starts giggling and laughing and sort of gives the surprise away. 

Sometimes when Rob is working in the office, we like to surprise him with cookies. Well, we try to surprise him, but he hears us coming down the hallway long before we even get to the door. She yells, "Surprise!" anyway.

Because Faith likes surprises, she was very excited for her uncle Todd's surprise birthday party. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that she was there when Todd walked in the room, when we all yelled "Surprise!" 

She had been a little nervous beforehand, so she and Rob ended up coming a little later. After she warmed up to the new environment, and all the unfamiliar faces, she couldn't wait for us to put the candles on the cake and sing Happy Birthday.

Due to Todd's rigorous rig schedule, we had his party a little early

Todd, Barbara and family

The cake was a huge hit!

Faith helped me count all 35 candles!

Happy Birthday Uncle Todd!

The birthday party was a lot of fun and Todd certainly was surprised. We got to share some time with Barbara's two sisters who also live here and their families and meet some new people as well. It was a big success and Faith is looking forward to trying to surprise someone again - even though she's not very good at it!

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 26, 2012 at 8:16 AM

    My name is Hollley. I have a little brother who has cerebral palsy. And i was want ing to know what was she in the first picture?

    ReplyDelete

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Appointments and More Appointments

-
Image
One of the unfortunate things about cerebral palsy (CP) are the many co-occurring health issues that go along with it. Because of this, those with CP have more doctors, specialists, and other kinds of providers they see on a regular basis. While the CP itself mainly affects the muscles, other areas of the body are affected as well, which results in more medical challenges.  For instance, besides CP, some of other Faith’s health issues include: ·          Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other digestive issues ·          Scoliosis ·          Bowel and bladder incontinence ·          General anxiety Because of these co-occurring conditions, we have more appointments than the average person. At times, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Faith enjoying a nice fall day On September 23 rd , we ended up in the E...
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Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm.  The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. My arm is still red and sore on day 2 after my tetanus shot. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four-hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three-hour nap up until 7 o'clock, but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. ...
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September is  NICU Awareness Month . For those who don't know, NICU is an acronym for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. According to  World Metrics  50,000 premature babies in the United States receive care each year in the NICU.  The average NICU stay for a preemie is 25 days. Honestly, that number surprises me, as I thought it would be much higher than that. Along with preemies, full-term babies born with certain health issues, such as respiratory distress, jaundice, and other kinds of infections receive care in the NICU.  Tiny Faith in her isolette at Mayo  But for Faith, whose untimely birth consisted of an emergency C-section 11 weeks early, it took 73 days before she was discharged. Those 73 days were a major emotional rollercoaster! And for many reasons, one of which was being nearly 600 miles from home as Faith was born at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. (You can read what led up to that on my post,  October 4, 2003: A Day I'll Ne...
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