A Great (GASP!) Developmental Appointment

I usually dread taking Romy to her developmental assessment appointments. They're usually filled will not-so-great findings and 'Debbie Downer' attitudes. However, this time it went fantastic. We saw a new doctor and it was nice to get a fresh perspective on things, and for someone who can see Romy for what she's doing NOW versus what she wasn't doing before. Anyway, he did a few short tests and exercises with her, many that she did at the beginning of the year at school for her entrance into preschool. She did pretty fantastic, much better than she did in January. Most of it was picture identifying and just asking her questions and stuff like that. He was really impressed with her language receptive skills (understanding), and was pleased with the progress she's made in her expressive skills. The final verdict was that yes, she is still delayed, but is considered borderline rather than mildly delayed as she was before. Borderline meaning she's not far off at all from the average range. Altogether pretty impressive for a former micro preemie with cerebral palsy. He even thinks she might have done better if her motor skills were up to par. If Romy keeps on progressing at the rate she's going, she could very well drop the borderline label as well. Hopefully she'll keep on progressing and not have any major setbacks. Her biggest obstacles seem to be her motor issues (obviously) and her expressive speech, but even those are improving some. Will she ever catch up completely cognitively, walk, or speak fully functionally? I don't know, but either way, I'm okay with it. She seems to be extremely happy and functions really well for the most part, and that's all that really matters at this point.

We also saw her neurologist for the last time before we leave. We talked about the baclofen pump that she's approved for, but since we'll have access to Duke's Children's Hospital when we move we're just going to wait to see what they have to say since they may recommend a rhizotomy instead. She also got fitted for new AFO's.

We've got a few more appointments this month and we are outta here in July!

Here's a quick video of Romy spelling her name. For some reason she says the number 1 and the letter R the same. She didn't want anything to do with at first, but eventually complied. Is she a smarty pants or what?