Bittersweet Goodbyes and a Medical Recap

Stella has been a busy girl lately getting back into the routine of weekly physical, occupational, and speech therapies and spending lots of time with family. We have recently been to both the cardiologist and the neurologist for routine check ups. Her echocardiogram with the cardiologist was great and he continued to describe her tricuspid valve leak as "normal" and the pressure in her pulmonary veins was lower on both sides. Their only concern was her weight (Stella lost almost one pound since they had seen her one month prior.) Her neurology appointment was a follow-up to our recent hospital visit for seizures. We have more than doubled the amount of Keppra that she gets each day and we've added on Topamax and have only seen one seizure episode since these med changes. Her neurologist wants to continue with this routine and see her again next month unless we see any changes before then - but hopefully this amount of medication will keep her seizures under control because we don't want to have to keep increasing her medication. We have also noticed a decrease in her vomiting and it leads us to believe that the vomiting is related to the seizures. At her neurology appointment she had gained 6 ounces in 4 days so hopefully with her throwing up less we can get her back on her growth curve.

In 8 days we have a bittersweet goodbye as my brother, sister-in-law and 3 of Stella's cousins leave for South Africa for 2 years. We are so proud of the brave decision they have made for their family to serve the world in South Africa but we are sad to see them leaving. The past few weeks we have been enjoying as much cousin time as possible. Stella and Everett are only a few months apart and Stella loves to watch her little cousin move and play (he is walking running at 10 months and it is great for her development to interact with him and learn from him.) Reagan and Stella are the only girls on my side of the family and Reagan loves to share all of her favorite girly things with Stella.

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This morning our church brought Scott, Amber, Reagan, Garrett and Everett up to pray for them as they get ready to make the biggest move of their lives. If you would like to continue to follow their journey and support them in prayer you can find out more here at their website. They have played a big part in our lives especially when we needed support in the hospital on some of Stella's toughest days. It is going to be a long two years not to have them a few miles away where we can get together for play dates or dinner at anytime but I am so thankful for the opportunity to support them while they go through this change in their lives just like they were there for us as our life changed.