PT and OT Updates

When they said on the news, "The cold season is upon us" they weren't kidding.

We, myself and my two babies, have been "fighting the good fight" for the last week or so. It began with Mia last Monday afternoon - a fever and sever coughing which turned into viral bronchitis; two days later, JJ came down with similar symptoms and a ear infection; two days after that, they lovingly passed it on to their mother. Hooray.

So, needless to say, therapy appointments have been put on hold for now until everyone is feeling better again.

And, as usual, Jay was spared from all ailments. :)

Have I mentioned how much I love bleach?!? I've bleached everything I can get my hands on. Our poor pug, Irving, ran for cover when he saw me coming for him! ;o)

So, we shall start fresh next week with all appointments and therapy sessions.

PEEP this!

An early Easter package came in the mail today, addressed to "Mia and family." Enclosed was a VERY special treat - marshmallow Peeps! At first when I saw them I thought, "Oh no! She can't have Peeps! What am I going to tell her when she asks if she can have one?"

Wellllll...as it turns out, Peeps are GLUTEN-FREE!! Hooray!

And I should have known...Gramma (pronounced "Grumma") would have never sent anything that wasn't an "approved" treat for Mia. :)

PT Update

During today's session, Mary noticed that Mia has fluid on her RIGHT knee now. So, we are keeping an eye on it. Mary took measurements right above, on, and right below her kneecap and well see what happens in the next few weeks. When Mary pressed on the center of Mia's kneecap, you could see the fluid ooze out right above....very squishy and puffy. So, this is something new for us to pray about.

Other than that, she did well during her session. During the exercises, she initiated more with her left leg (i.e., climbing stairs, stepping over hurdles, taking giant steps on the colored mats on the floor to get a good stretch out of her left leg). So, that was very good! Mary said her joints were very fluid today with minimal resistance. Her elbow still needs some work, but it is much straighter than it was several months ago.

Overall, it was a good session. :)

GF, Kid-friendly Food!

Mia's favorite thing to eat is chicken. Since she was a wee tot, Mia always preferred chicken over any other food. She will even ask to eat chicken for breakfast!

However, lately she has become a bit picky about what is placed before her at mealtime. While Mia's diet is a bit limited right now, I try to get creative with what she can eat. She will eat the GF chicken noodle soup I make for her (gluten-free chicken broth, with rice pasta, carrots, celery, chicken, onion and a pinch of parsley). Recently, I discovered that she loves my GF veggie meatloaf (I substitute the bread crumbs for gluten-free waffles that I toast and then blend in the food processor). And, of course, she will eat my chicken cutlets (which I bread with ground up rice crackers) and serve with sweet potato fries (white potatoes are a "no no"). I make most of Mia's food from scratch because not all GF foods in the grocery store are dairy-free and egg-free, too.

So, I need to come up with some other creative food options for her - especially for the days she goes to school. Toddlers can be very picky - one day they love it and the next day they don't! So, I need to send in something with her that I know she is going to eat. Otherwise, they just end up sending it back home to me. And then I wonder to myself, "Well, if she didn't eat lunch, then what DID she eat all day long? Nothing?"

So, I've been trying to come up with new and creative food choices for my little girl.

Last night, while making my weekly trip to Whole Foods to pick up food/snacks for Mia, I happened upon a wonderful, kid-friendly treat - Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets by Wellshire Farms. And they are dinosaur-shaped, too!


You have no idea how excited I was to find this awesome treat! For months I have been making EVERYTHING from scratch - staying up late at night after the kids go to bed preparing food for Mia...and making extra so I can freeze it and have it on-hand when she needs it.

Some of you may think, "Big deal...they are just chicken nuggets!" Well, when you can't pop into McDonald's for a happy meal like so many parents do, GF chicken nuggets are a big deal.

I am so excited about my new discovery! I am going to have her try them out at lunch today...hopefully, she likes them! If she does, this will definitely cut down my time in the kitchen late at night!

Waiting.

"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good" (Romans 8:26-28, The Message Bible).

We are still waiting. Standing strong, but still waiting. Some days, it feels like we are in mid-air, flying in a holding pattern. Mia has made much progress since October, but what is the next step? Stop her meds next month? Continue her special diet? For how long? Start adding things back in to her diet and see what happens? Am I ready for that and for what may happen? I don't know. So, we are waiting on God for the next step.

However, even in the midst of our "waiting period," God continues to lift us up and encourage us - even at our lowest moments.

Yesterday, Mia met with her OT again. The therapist comes to the church once a week where Mia is in the nursery across the hall from my office. Mia had a great session and did very well with her exercises. At the end of the session, her therapist said to me, "I have a question...and it is not related to Mia's session." She proceeded to ask me about our church and what we believe. I saw the open door and began to tell her all about our church and what we believe and about having a personal relationship with God. She has two teenage daughters at home and seemed very open to everything I was telling her. It was an awesome opportunity to be able to share with her.

After the session, I got to thinking...maybe God has a purpose for this waiting period? I don't think it is an accident that these three therapist have been "assigned" to Mia. Perhaps God has another plan that I hadn't even considered. :)

In the midst of our darkest moments, God always has a way of working the situation into something good. Sometimes, waiting isn't so bad after all.

Goodbye. Hello!

So, you may be wondering to yourself, "Wow! What happened to Dana's other totally awesome layout?" Well, after perusing through several blog forums yesterday, I discovered that the old layout I had chosen is being referred to as the "poop brown" layout amongst other bloggers. Lovely. This news came as a total shock to me when I found out I was not considered "cool" in the blogging world.

In the hopes that none of those skilled bloggers ever saw my layout (which I once liked, but now look upon with total disgust because of the name it is being associated with), I stopped everything I was doing and made the necessary adjustments.

So,"goodbye old" and "hello new." I hope you enjoy the new look. :)

OT Update

Mia's therapist, Kelly, came to our house today for Mia's appointment. Mia is so comfortable with Kelly. She let Kelly go through all the stretches and exercises without very much resistance. She still needs some help getting her right palm to be completely straight when she has it facing upward. But, her knee is looking good and Mia was running all over the place and bending down and squatting just fine today. Kelly was amazed.

The session lasted longer than usual and cut into nap time, so Mia was exhausted by the time Kelly left. As a treat, after nap time we went over to visit Mia & JJ's great grandparents and we had dinner over there with my super cute niece, Isabella, and my husband's aunt, Judi. It was so much fun...a nice break from a long day. And the great grandparents had a blast having dinner with their three great grandchildren.

PT Update

It is Monday again. So, off we went for our morning appointment with Mary. :)

Today was much better than last week. Mia is starting to initiate activities with her left leg. Up until now, she would only go up the stairs or step over objects with her right leg first. Today was the first time that she started alternating legs...sometimes starting off with her left leg first. This is major progress.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, bad habits have been formed as a result of the JRA. Mainly, because Mia is protecting her joints. Several months ago, she could hardly put any weight on her left leg when she was standing...now she can squat down evenly on both legs and she can lift her leg up to step over things. Praise God!

The Next Step: Mary wants to focus more attention on Mia's elbow as it is still not straight. She did a couple of stretches on her today, but Mia cried and pulled away and told Mary, "NO!" So, we will continue to work on her right elbow some more.