Hope

The week has not been all that bad. Elise woke up sick on Monday morning. Her breathing didn't sound good. I gave her some of Brendan's Pulmicort through the nebulizer. She immediately felt much better. I still scheduled a doctor's visit for her because I wanted her back at UCLA as soon as possible and I'm basically really paranoid about her having breathing difficulties after our traumatic experience last year. Anyway, I get her to the doctor and find out that she is fine, per usual. I never understand why when I make the judgement call not to see a doctor, it's something potentially serious. When I decide to take her, it's nothing but a cold. Funny how that works. By Monday evening, she was sounding very congested. I decided to keep her home another day. Well, she woke up at 7 on Tuesday morning and honestly seemed fine. It was too late to commute her to UCLA, so she had another day off school. Wednesday was a holiday for her from school. Therefore, today was her first day after 5 days off. I was afraid she would resist going back, but the opposite occurred. She seemed really happy and excited to be there. I had to make her look at me just to say goodbye. She was too busy playing!

We had a research study play session this morning. I think I'm really learning a lot about how to best play with her. Today they videotaped me playing with her for 10 minutes and then discussed it. It helped a lot. I could tell the difference in the things I've learned over the past 3 weeks and how well Elise responds to it. We're so blessed to have her in this program and this study. I'm feeling very hopeful.

Hubby met with the care coordinator for the program today and I met with the social worker again. Our meeting with her teacher tomorrow is cancelled. I'm hoping to take a day off work next week so that I can observe her for a couple of hours. Of course, this will mean that I have to take off sick since they don't seem to allow any personal time. I have to make up any hours I miss and with driving Elise all the way down to UCLA, there are just not enough hours in the day.

Elise now has an appointment scheduled with a neurologist in December. We also have begun the steps to obtain an appointment with Genetics. I don't really expect that anything will be found in either evaluation/review, but we just don't want to miss any underlying health condition. The admitting physician for the program referred Elise for both neurology and genetics.

The lawn is no longer a sewer. The plumber arrived on Monday and cleared a lot of tree roots from the line. We're repairing the car tire hopefully on Saturday (again)... Abuela arrives in the afternoon on Saturday. It'll be nice to have the help and the kids are looking forward to seeing her. My busiest time of the month at work is done. That's a relief. That place is just crazy, there's no other word for it. Way too short staffed, they're just looking for lots of "free" labor. Hey, if I can do the work of 3, why not? seems to be their philosophy. Oh well, it's paying the bills for now and providing Elise's insurance coverage for treatment. It's not buying them any loyalty, that's for sure.

Here's hoping for continued good news.