Updates on Chelsea's Progress

Jan. 2, 2002 - Since August Chelsea has made a lot of adjustments to her personality.  She is definitely becoming very demanding and manipulative which is a huge mile stone in communication areas so we say.... bravo!!!  She also has only had 3
seizures to report since August.  She just recently received her supine stander with head kit which will allow her to bear weight through her legs
and still remain completely supported.

She is not vomiting as often, less than two times a week now!!!  We are currently having trouble with her g-tube, it is very leaky and we have to see her surgeon to
decide if she needs a different kind of button.  Chelsea is scheduled for an
over night sleep study this month so it will be interesting to see what the
out come of that will be.  We are so pleased with the strides she is making in all areas of development.  We are starting to see that there is still hope that some
day Chelsea may be able to crawl, sit stand, walk.

July 23, 2002 - Chelsea has officially been diagnosed with Cerebal Palsy and 
just recently started taking valium for her muscle tone, also because she is sensory impaired.  It has caused her to be very irritable, the doctors say it is because she is getting so much information and cannot understand or process all of the information that it is....well, overwhelming, for her and so it is causing the irritability.  That is the other reason for the valium.  

The CP diagnosis, while it wasn't a huge surprise for me it has been quite hard to face.  Chelsea just got a new stroller made especially for her, she now
will be able to sit up while we take stroller rides.  We have decided not to use the cochlear implant for the time being because Chelsea despises it.  We thought if we put it up for a while maybe she will forget that she doesn't like it.  Chelsea had her 8th surgery in May to remove her tonsils and adnoids,  because she had a
sleep study that showed 39 obstructions or apnea spells. She will have her follow up sleep study on August 1st to make sure that she isn't having any more trouble with apnea.

Chelsea is weighing in at 25lbs now, she is at the 50th percentile for the first time ever and we are thrilled.  She still can't hold her head up or roll over or sit, or even stand without her stander, but she is becoming more and more beautiful each and every day.