On Monday, I took Blaise in to the lab at Harvard for her first study. This one used Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure changes in the amount of oxygen in the blood in her brain, in response to different numbers of dots on a screen. They didn't have a camera and I left mine at home, so there are no pictures of her in the nifty NIRS hat. She also didn't do so well in the study, mostly because she wanted to look at everything except the dots on the screen. Still, worth a try and we got an official Harvard Laboratory for Developmental Studies bib, which Blaise spit up all over on the way home.
We also talked with her GI doc on Monday about the results of her colonoscopy and upper GI scope. The upper GI stuff is all fine, so that's good. The biopsies they took of the irritated tissue in her rectum and lower colon show what is likely an allergic response. Allergy to what we don't know. The blood is still showing up in spite of the change in her formula, but that may resolve with a little time. If not, we hope to treat it topically with cortisone. She doesn't get hives or have difficulty breathing or any of the other common systemic allergic responses, so hopefully we're not lookng at a major allergy. This is still all a very minor issue, but no one is crazy about blood in diapers.
Then yesterday Blaise had her assessment with Cambridge Early Intervention. This is a program that works with kids who are at risk for developmental delays to give them a shot at overcoming those risks. Blaise qualifies both for being premature and for having an extensive hospital stay. If we're being honest, Ben and I were really hoping that the assessment would tell us that she was developmentally on target in spite of being nearly 2 months early and spending almost 5 months in the hospital. The therapist seemed pleased with what Blaise is able to do, but she is behind in some gross motor skills and oral/vocal communication. No one seems to think any of these issues will fail to resolve with therapy and we're setting up a plan to address them. Unfortunately for Blaise, this will mean more tummy time.
1 comment:
The pre-k special ed teacher part of me says "hooray for early intervention - Blaise will do beautifully!" Early intervention REALLY helps; I'm glad in that respect she'll receive services. I know she'll catch up!
Blaise's 2nd cousin Aoife has rolled over, but as far as we can tell refuses to anymore because she says "Eh!" and daddy or grandpa gets her toy for her or picks her up. Silly pretty girls not doing what they're supposed to.
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