Ellie Update...

"Reading" To Ethan

Great news from the specialist today...she had nothing but positive things to say about Ellie's progress. Both mom and I were very impressed with the doctor (she was working recently in Boston, so she has to be good, right). She seemed to really understand childhood strokes and explained things to us really well. She answered all our questions and didn't rush us at all. Ellie is scheduled to see her again in July for a follow up. She is going to locate the blood test results for us (I spent more than an hour on the phone yesterday trying to track them down with no luck) and is going to work with the neurologist that we saw while in the hospital to get a better idea about Ellie's case. She also got us an evaluation with a speech therapist (another item that I was having difficulty with) in a few weeks. She wasn't able to look at the images of Ellie's MRIs in the office, so she said she would look at them on her laptop and get back to us soon with some more thoughts. So, here is basically what she said:

*She thought Ellie looked like she was doing "very well" for being only 10 days post-stroke. She looked at her walking and hopping and said she appeared to have a slight delay on her right side, but that it wasn't significant.

*She agreed that she should have her vision checked by an Opthamologist so that we can see if there are any issues with the vessels around her eyes. So this is my next task and I will try and set up an appointment today.

*She didn't think that she would need any Physical Therapy, but said if we wanted to have an evaluation done that the therapist could suggest some exercises to do at home.

*She strongly recommends the speech therapy (which we are not suprised about since her speech seems to be the biggest challenge). We will have an evaluation done June 1st and then schedule as recommended, hopefully closer to home.

*She also recommended occupational therapy. We have a number for a therapist at the hospital where Ellie was initally treated, so I will also be contacting them this week for an appointment. We did see them twice while admitted, so hopefully getting an appointment will be easier than it was for the speech therapy.

*She actually said that the majority of cases that occur without a cause have a higher success rate for recovery and have a lower risk for re-occurance, so eventhough it would be difficult to never know why this happened to Ellie, if the results of the tests continue to come back inconclusive, we can hope that the worst is behind us and concentrate on her recovery.

*She also said that if they can't locate a cause for the stroke, if it is an isolated incident, that we really don't need to worry about Ethan suffering from one (his odds are no greater than any other child - and we know this is rare).

*We should know some more detailed information in the next few weeks. The doctor told us she would contact us after she reviewed the MRIs and bloodtest results. I am most curious about the area of the brain that was affected and exactly what things it controls.

*She also agreed that sending Ellie to preschool in the fall is a great idea and she should do really well. Most kids she has seen in similar situations have really improved in a school setting.

All in all, it was a good day. Both kids were troopers...it took 2 hours to get to the hospital! They were really well behaved and were exhausted by the time we made it home. I think we will all be sleeping well tonight. On that note, Ethan has been sleeping through the night (well, at least until 5:30 or 6am) nearly every night since we came home from the hospital - such a blessing!