Head Growth=Brain Growth

Yesterday, Isabella had her regular monthly appointment in Kansas City. We went over to Crown Center for lunch and ate with Micah, Gracie and sweet, little Kinsley. I got in as much snuggle time with Kinsley as I could before we had to head over to the hospital for our appointment. We actually saw Dr. Gratny this time. We have not gotten to see her since we came home from our second open heart. Let me tell you, Dr. Gratny was more than pleased with Isabella's progress. She just could not say enough good things about how Isabella is doing. Her head has grown quite a bit since her last visit. This is REALLY good news because since she suffered her brain injury, she has not had much head growth which means not much brain growth. She was also very pleased with her quickness at reaching some milestones over the last few months. She said her muscles have good tone which is something that indicates her brain is healing. Typically with brain injury, they are very rigid and sometimes even with meds it does not help. She got to watch as I picked up Isabella and Isabella turned into me and snuggled. She said that was a good sign. She said to be honest, she really was starting to worry that Isabella was not going to progress and that she was never going to have REAL purposeful interaction. She is now convinced that Isabella has the potential to keep moving forward. She said we were going a great job and to just keep doing what we are doing. They lowered her breathing rate down to 10 on her vent. She is now on the lowest settings. We are to be taking her off the vent several times a day and we are to try and keep her off as long as she can tolerate. So we are officially in the weaning process. She is doing so good that she does not have to go back for 6 weeks. So we will go back up right after the 4th of July and we will see Dr. Gratny and she will also go and get her eyes checked to see if she can "see" well enough for glasses. It depends on how much her cortical vision has healed. She needs glasses, but if her brain can't process an image then glasses are pointless. So we will see. I personally think her sight is getting better with each passing day. She is actually starting to respond to visual threat and she seems to focus better. So anyways, we will continue therapy weekly and she will go to see her cardiologist in Joplin next month for a follow-up echo. So good news all around. All I can really say is Praise God!!!