Everything's Better With Pasta

For one week at least, Gwendolyn’s hospital visits are complete. By and large, there wasn’t much that came for this round of consultations. Luckily, everyone seemed pleased with her progress thus far in terms of things as they relate to her spina bifida. As of now, her kidneys and bladder are functioning well, her bone and muscle growth is normal, her neurologist seems please with her shunt and both occupational therapy and physical therapy felt that her improvement between now and her last visit to the spinal defects clinic was great.

At the end of this clinic visit, Gwen was fitted for her first set of braces. As you can see, the shape of her leg is created by molding a special tape that sets (similar to what they’d use on a cast) around her feet and calves. Then they cut it off and send it to the manufacturer to custom-make her particular braces. In two weeks, Gwen should have her new set of braces and when her stander comes, she will be ready to start using it.

Next Friday, she’ll be back at the hospital for a brain MRI. Again, the purpose of this one is to chart her chiari malformation and see if it has any effect on her apnea spells. Because the best results are had when the patient is perfectly still, they will have to put Gwen out for this procedure. And given her apnea history, there is a chance she’ll remain in the hospital overnight for normal observation just to be sure she’s not experiencing any ill effects for the anesthesia. We obviously hope it won’t come to that but as we’ve learned in the past with “The Gwenner,” nothing’s ever easy.

As for Braelyn, yep that’s our little Italian girl above eating her first helping of pasta and marinara. Granted, she’s been getting table food for a little while already but Mom typically is the one that prepares the girls’ tender vittles (even though Mom and Dad ultimately share the task of actually feeding the two of them). So, when you’ve got an Irish gal preparing the meals, typically Italian cuisine isn’t one of the first things on the menu! Of course, if Dad had issue with this, he could have just gotten off his rump and made Brae Bear's pasta himself instead of waiting for his wife to complete the task… And therein lies our conundrum!

;)

Talk to you all soon!!!