The Mitchells: October 2007

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Rolling Elephant

We attended the Fall Festival tonight at First Baptist and Ella decided to roll around the gym floor in her costume. This was the happiest she was all evening. Remind us next year to just stay home with the kids and pass out candy...these carnivals are for the older kids for sure.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Curls?

People always ask where Ella gets her curls from...so here are a picture of my brother (the blonde) and myself when we were kiddos and had some curl.

..granted, it's not as crazy in these pictures as Ella's usually is.

Picture Update

Daddy holding Judah Michael Kramer...4 days old!

Playing at the Kramers...I needed attention since everyone was looking at the baby!

At church tonight we went to a big party...here I am in party mode!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Fall Fest at the Heights

Fall in Dallas...check out the outfit

Aqua Therapy

Standing for Grandma

Saturday, October 20, 2007

What is going on with the Mitchells?

I know...it never takes me this long to really update the blog. I probably won't write long, too much to do. We moved into our new house exactly a week ago today...wow. We almost completely out of boxes and things are starting to find their place. If you would like our new address and didn't get the email please let me know!! mitchells1016@sbcglobal.net Oh, and then I didn't have internet for 5 days and no time at all to blog when I finally did. Ella and I did her overnight stay in Bridgeport, TX last night at a nursing home to finalize her Medicare qualifications...we are WIPED today. E didn't go to sleep till 11:30pm and woke up at 5am...NOT enough sleep. Still enjoying having my mother-in-law in town and helping us get our house into a home. William is moving like CRAZY and all of my appointments are going great. Ella continues to impress her therapists and we are working on really getting good at the crawling position...crawling is around the corner...we just know it! Oh, and we started Aqua Therapy...physical therapy in the pool...it's on Mondays and she's starting to kind of understand...or at least not mind so much. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'm including pictures to make up for it. Oh, and we got her new stroller...can't remember if I already told you all that.

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.