Finally giving a one year update!

Ok- so, only about 2 months late.  I cannot seem to get it together lately!  At the end of April, we had another follow-up appointment.  This would be considered her 1 year appointment.  Dr. David had nothing but great things to say.  She said her head looked and felt perfect. She didn't see anything to be concerned about!  YAY!  We were thrilled.  Such a relief for everybody.

In May, Mallory turned two- only 6 days before her 1-year Cranioversary.  We celebrated with a rainbow themed party at our house with many family and friends.  We asked that our guests donate items to Cranio Care Bears , a charity that is very important to us.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to this great organization!  Look at everything we collected :)

We all had such a great time- particularly the birthday girl.  How cute was she?

We truly enjoyed that day with everyone.  On her 1st birthday, Kit and I were in a fog with the surgery looming but this year we were able to relax, have fun, and enjoy the time with everyone.

Of course, nothing lasts forever.  This high began to deflate only a few weeks ago when we found several bumps in her head.  Boo.  I called to make an appointment for when we returned from our vacation.  Automatically we thought the worst but my mantra is "It is what it is".  There is nothing I can do to change what is happening.  Turns out, it is good that I didn't do too much worrying because all is well!  We saw our surgeon a few days ago.  She explained that all of the bumps are normal. Two were the screws starting to dissolve.  One of the bumps is the plate.  And the final bump she thinks is part of her natural head shape- oh well, I still think she's perfect! 

We also had a follow-up with the neuro-surgeon this week for her arachnoid cyst that they found during the initial scan last year.  He explained that the cyst will continue to grow at the same rate as her brain.  But he has no reason to believe that it has, or will, cause her any problems so he has released us from his care!  I am happy to hear that.  We have enough doctors appointments with these 3 girls!

So, here we are almost 14 months post-surgery and all is well!   Our next follow-ups with the surgeon are November and April 2014.  Hopefully I will nothing to update.  ;)

Thanks again for reading.  Also, thanks for everyone's continued support during this journey.

Speech delay.......what speech delay?

As I mentioned in my last entry, we were a little worried about Mallory's speech.  During Christmas break I realized that she hadn't gained one more word in her vocabulary for about a month so I decided it was time to look into it.  I called my pediatrician and she suggested I start with an evaluation at the CDSA in Winston-Salem.  We very quickly met with our service provider and got an evaluation scheduled for the middle of January.  A child psychologist came and spent about 2 hours with Mallory and I at the house.  Of course, she loved the individual attention!  Their assessment consisted of 5 different areas of development and in all 5 she had typical development even in communication.  However, that score consisted of both receptive and expressive so she did an additional assessment that broke up the 2 areas.  Based on this test, Mallory did have a 45% delay in expressive language (scored at 11 months and she was 20 months at the time) so we qualified for the services of the agency.  The next week we created our Family Service Plan where we decided to continue with a speech evaluation.  Due to the stomach flu and other various illnesses our scheduled evaluation was delayed (no pun intended!) ;) so we didn't get in until mid February.  About a week before the appointment I just knew she would not qualify.  Her speech had exploded- she copied everything we said and had probably gained about 20 words in a month.  Well, I was right.  She scored at almost exactly her chronological age.  And about 3 weeks later we continue to hear more and more.  It's so exciting to hear and I smile every time she says something to me.   This was the ONLY area we have ever worried about and here we are almost 10 months past surgery and she is right where we should be.
What a miracle!