An Overdue Update

Wow. I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this journal. The time has flown by and it hasn't been uneventful!

In mid-June Peyton had a visit with her ENT doctor to discuss her sleep apnea. In the course of the appointment, he discovered she had an ear infection. It was treated. It returned. She just finished her second round of antibiotics and will return to see him next week. I'm afraid we're probably getting close to having to have tubes put in her ears. The ENT didn't want to allow her to have too many ear infections that could further compromise her hearing. She's had 4 or 5 already since December.

A visit to the ophthalmologist a couple weeks back revealed some flakiness around/in her eyes. Possibly excema. On the same day, she had an appointment with her pediatrician, so we were able to discuss the matter with both doctors. In addition to her eyes, the mild flakiness sometimes appears elsewhere on her face, but she will also get a rash periodically. The doctor thought it might be a heat rash, excema or something in between. Peyton was prescribed eye drops, an ointment for her outer eye, and a steroid cream for the rash.

In news this week, Peyton appears to have developed an allergic reaction built up over time to the eye drop she was prescribed. She has taken that particular drug several times in her life. It's the drug of choice following all her surgeries and for most problems she's had with her eyes. The inside of her eyelids were absolutely blood-shot yesterday and had several raised bumps on them. Turns out she has several styes and some advanced styes. We cut out that eye drop and ointment and have her on a new eye drop. Hopefully that helps.

Peyton had her annual review with her Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) team on Thursday. Her coordinator, developmental services, nutrition, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and hearing teachers were all present. Everything will remain pretty much the same except we dropped nutrition from her service grid. Sad to say good-bye to her nutritionist who has been wonderful, but if you could see Peyton now, you'd definitely see there's not much of a weight issue now compared to just a few months ago! Way to go Peyton!!

Peyton's physical therapist was not present, however we had a visit with her earlier that day. We're looking into various pieces of equipment that we can get for Peyton to allow her to be better positioned. We're looking at a few different seating options which would get Peyton up off the floor and into a sitting position to do things. We got her in her high chair for the first time. I've been very hesitant about putting her in it because of support issues she has. Now that I see how to do it properly, we'll be doing it all the time now!!

Peyton saw her orthopedist on Friday. It was a follow up after having the problems with her hips at birth. She had x-rays done and everything appears to be developing normally. She has very low muscle tone, so we were concerned that perhaps she might not be. However, things are looking good. We will see him in a year or one month after she starts walking - whichever comes first.

It's been a very busy past few weeks. Peyton is doing well. She's really taken to her new babysitter. She's gained more weight - she's almost 21 lbs now at 14 months! Moira is also doing fantastic in her new daycare. She keeps us on our toes!! Ron was away for work in Dayton, OH on Monday through Wednesday of this week, so I got to handle both kids myself during that time. I need a vacation!! They were both good girls for me but I'm happy to have my helper back!!

We're crazy people and are heading off shortly for a little weekend jaunt to Albuquerque. I think it's about 14 hours...and we're driving. Leaving shortly and will be back Tuesday night. We just wanted to see something different. Hopefully all goes well. Will keep you posted on Peyton's progress next week.