The Mitchells: Straw Days

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Straw Days

During VitalStim, Sara our therapist, is teaching Ella to suck/swallow (thickened) water through a straw. It's amazing how difficult it is for Ella to seal her lips...it's all neurological. This trick will also help with her speach since you have to seal your lips for a lot of sounds...like "ma", "ba", etc.

We'll let you know how the new swallow study goes on September 5th.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Ella is ALWAYS so sweet and beautiful, she amazes me! Many kisses from the Falgouts!; 11:26 AM
* ~ *Jessica* ~ * said...: Awesome! I hope she gets the lip sealing thing down soon! That's a big challenge for Logen as well. I cannot wait for the day that Logen is able to say "Mama" or to drink from a "normal" sippy cup or a straw, etc. Keep me updated on Ella's VS progress! I really am amazed at all of the progress that Logen has made with Vital Stim!; 2:15 PM

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Ella's Story

Elizabeth "Ella" Hope Mitchell was born on May 10, 2006 at 3:45pm...by 5am the following morning the whole world turned upside down. The doctors came in to inform us that while Ella had been resting in the Newborn Nursery, she began to have irregular breathing and seizures. It was touch and go for the next 3 days. We were told several times that she probably would not make it alive through the ordeal. She had contracted Group Beta Strep which had resulted in meningitis. Due to the seizures and the infection we had no idea what the long-term effects would be. After Ella spent a long and trying month in the NICU we came home to see where the effects of her illness had left us all.

A few months later, almost a year, we had an official long-term diagnosis...Ella has Cerebral Palsy. She is a happy and loving child. She struggles with physical delays, cognitive delays and all sorts of things that have come and go.

2-eye surgeries to correct lazy eye
3-EEG's to check for siezures
5-MRI/MRV/MRA to check actual brain damage
3-CT scans for brain stuff
1-G-button/feeding tube surgically put in (and then Ella removed herself)
10 (approx)-Swallow Studies
1-Scoliosis Study
2-Kidney Reflux tests
2-Upper GI tests
1-24 hr reflux test
8-hearing tests
countless UTI tests
seemingly a million developmental tests
a hand splint
bath chair
adaptive stroller/wheelchair
stander
gait trainer
AFO's

ha, not to mention all of the therapist...currently: OT 2X/week, PT 3X/week (2 land, 1 horse), ST 3X/week (2 oral motor, 1 speech), develomental 1X/week, vision 2x/month, and we are about to start ACCDAT camp.

As of 4/8/2009.