Today's medical briefing

Shout-out to my dad for coming with Maya and I to today's appointments. It's really helpful to have an extra set of hands, and a bit of moral support as I answer the SAME negative questions (Nope, she doesn't say Mama. Nope, she doesn't clap. Nope, she can't hold herself up.) Good times.

Physiatry

First of all, what the hell is physiatry? I was going to put in a little hyperlink here to explain what it is, but I have no idea. Everything that I found online compared it to physical therapy, but we have a physical therapy evaluation next Weds. I did a Google Images search to find a picture to help explain physiatry and this is what came up:

Does that help? I find Olivia Newton-John to be very helpful in explaining medical situations.

Anyway, at this appointment I answered the same questions again, she did the same reflex tests and experiments that we've already done twice (holding blocks, tilting her when she's sitting to see fi she tries to catch herself, etc.) Same findings-most skills are around a 6 month old level, with a few good standouts.

Feeding/Speech & Language

Not much of a surprise, she has issues eating and is also behind in the babbling noises she's making. She should make more consonant noises, but doesn't (not shocking, since her tongue is often all over the place). We'll probably schedule a swallow study sometime soon because it seems like she has trouble negotiating sucking/swallowing/breathing. Oh, and I realized that we don't spend enough time repeating words & trying to teach them to her. So we need to do that more.

Met with Maya's service coordinator

Nice guy. That's about it.

The good stuff

Man, she's a really good sport about all this. Every doctor that we've seen has commented on 2 great things: she's super social (smiling, making noises at people) and really happy. She's a laid back, good natured kid.

That's all I remember, but I may be leaving something out because I'm beat. I'm at Starbucks (again) trying to finish my lessons for tomorrow. Back to work.