Today at school Katie wrote, "I am pretty" she is!
This is what everyone has decided the girls need at home and school, http://www.assistivetech.com/archive/pages/19325/view.aspx
The Mercury ll would be LIFE CHANGING for the girls. As our 17 ( almost) year old helper Bailey said yesterday, "if the girls had these you wouldn't need helpers!". LOL, true but we still want Betsy & Katie to have interaction with as many good people as possible. Even if Betsy could play computer games on her own it's still way more fun having Baily, Brittany or Jordan sitting next to her (I think?).
My new project is finding someway to get both girls a Mercury ll for home and school. I will start with Medicaid and then move on to wish organizations. If anyone has an idea of some funding source I haven't thought of please let me know.
This is the most excited I've been about anything since I found out I was finally pregnant with Bets almost 13 years ago.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Is it really only February?
My family has had an EXTREMELY eventful winter so far. On January 19th we came thisclose to losing Katie. Due to a flaw in her ventilator (of which we have been aware but always caught the problem quickly) she went far too long, 10+ minutes with too much CO2 and not enough 02. Her vent didn't alarm so we thought everything was OK until my right hand helper Ashleigh found her totally colorless and unresponsive in her chair in front of the TV next to Betsy.
I immediately started ambu-bagging her on as much 02 as we (new nurse Melissa, Ashleigh and I) could get to Katie from the portable tanks. Ashleigh called 911 (a first for us in 8 years) and I bagged her as hard as I could all the while yelling at Katie to come back to me while Melissa rubbed her sternum with her knuckles HARD. After Ashleigh called for an ambulance she hooked Katie up to her pulse oximeter, her 02 saturation was 93% and her heart rate was 139. I was getting no response from her at all still so Melissa convinced me to let her ambu while I ran upstairs to get my husband, Doug who was sound asleep after being up all night with no nurse. I had turned off the intercom and baby monitor in our room so that he could get good rest so he hadn't heard any of the commotion at all, the downside of having a big house. Once I roused him we ran back down to continue the code, when Doug yelled at Katie to wake up she finally started making a tiny bit of noise and moving her eyes which had been staring blankly until then. After I yelled "Katie, answer me!!!"
over and over for what seemed like forever she finally blinked.
There are NO words to express the relief I felt. Soon after that the ambulance arrived and quickly our family room was filled with paramedics and medics. We had to move Betsy from next to her sister to make room but she still of course wanted to be close enough to see everything that was happening as she had from the start when Ashleigh found Katie. Betsy is aware of everything so she knew what the consequences would be if we failed to revive Katie. Once Katie was transferred to the gurney to ride in the ambulance left Doug, Melissa and Ashleigh to answer the medics questions so I could put on clothes and throw anything close into my purse. When I got back downstairs I saw Betsy was suddenly hysterical, she had held it together until then. I hugged her and told her that sissy was going to be OK but we had to go to the ER so a doctor could see her. It was like having my guts ripped out to leave her in that state with her daddy and nurse but I had to go with Katie.
Ashleigh volunteered to go with us to help, she's THE BEST. The ambulance driver needed to know where we were going, to "real" Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indy or the new Riley North nearby. I called the girls' fabulous pulmonologist, Dr. Veda Ackerman on her cell phone for the first time ever in 11 years. She answered and I told her what had happened and asked where she wanted us to go and she said Riley North. At first in a daze I started to climb in the front seat of the ambulance, slipped on the huge metal steps and jacked up my leg (didn't even notice til 6 hours later). Then I said I would ride in back with Katie and Ashleigh (a nationally certified EMT who is in the Physicians Assistant program at Butler University here in Indianapolis) would ride in front. I sat down in the little seat and belted myself in all the while talking to Katie so she wouldn't be scared. The medic in back with me, a VERY nice lady, bagged Katie all the way to the hospital while I attempted to suction tons of junk out of her lungs with the too weak ambulance suction. The medic asked how long we've lived in Fishers and was surprised to hear that we've been here 7 years and they had never made a run to our house. I told her that routinely we don't accidentally almost kill our kids so we've never had to call before. The bright spot was that she said now the EMT/Fire department down the street would have all of our info, including the location of the girls' room in case of fire, power outage etc.
We got to the hospital in what seemed like a blink and I was relieved to get there so I could suction Katie's lungs with the powerful suction in the ER. The ambulance suction really was bad, it sucked in a bad way, I was basically dragging snot out of Katie's trach and never getting her airway fully clear. When the back doors of the ambulance opened there was Ashleigh pulling down the gurney legs when they didn't go down right away as the EMT's took Katie inside the ER. Once we were all inside one of Dr. Ackerman's colleagues, Dr. Bysani was waiting for us. He had spoken to Veda and already had a plan for Katie. Once she was transferred to the bed in the ER I could see that Katie's limbs were all still colorless and cold, the doctor ordered warming blankets and Ashleigh vigorously rubbed her feet under the blanket until they were warm and pink.
The first part of the plan was to give Katie a chest x ray, it looked clear and her lungs looked as open as ever. After that Katie was taken to a room in peds ICU. Once we were settled in the room I noticed that Katie was sweaty from the hot blanket (she HATES being hot) and I asked her if she wanted me to uncover her and she glared at me and wouldn't answer. She was pissed and wanted us to GO HOME NOW! That's when I knew I really had her back, I've never been so happy to see her temper! It quickly became clear that she had no memory of what had happened, when we took the girls to see Dr. Ackerman the next week she said that due to the CO2 poisoning/hypoxia that Katie had had a seizure which was why we had such a hard time getting her back.
The doctor ordered for Katie to have Rocephin IM in case their was any aspiration into her lungs that might get infected over night. He said that as long as she did well she could go home the next afternoon after 24 hours. I asked the doctor what we could do to ensure that what had happened to Katie never happen to either of my girls again. He explained that in order for the vent to alarm when this tube (which constantly gets knocked off or is pressured off due to the fact that it has very little surface area to hold on to the small metal port on the side of the vent) comes off the vent would alarm constantly from the leak around the girls trachs that allows them to be verbal. He said we probably wouldn't be able to come up with a solution by the time we left the next day.
By 8 that night all the family, helpers and FREAKED out nurse Melissa had left and it was just Katie and I in her room. I got her settled in with a new to her Elmo movie from the ICU's huge movie closet and I got online using the TV/Computer in the room. I wrote everyone on FaceBook to tell them how Katie was doing and once she finally fell asleep around midnight I took her picture and posted it. I made up the couch/bed with sheets and blankets and tried to settle in to get some sleep.
NOT. Every time I closed my eyes the days events and Katie's lifeless colorless face flashed through my mind like a movie. I couldn't shut my brain off so eventually I gave up and got back on the computer. First I got on the "Trach and Ventilator concerns" group on the SMASpace network and I sent all the members a message. The vent the girls use is probably the most widely used home vent and most of the members of the group use one of the "LTV" models. I wrote the group about what had happened and why. I promised that I would get an answer to this problem so that none of their kids would suffer the same kind of event that happened to Katie. Once I'd sent the message I gave sleep one more try at 3 am or so.
NOT. I got back online and Googled the company who makes the LTV ventilators, Pul
monetic Systems. I found that they are part of Cardinal Health. Once on the site I found that they claimed to have "World Class" tech support so I followed links til I found a contact form. I wrote about what had happened again and why and emphasized that an expert group ran Katie's code, ( I've been bringing both girls back from the brink as has their dad since Betsy first came home from Riley Hospital for Children with her home vent when she was 5 months old.) working along side me during the event was nurse Melissa and uber-helper Ashleigh. I promised them that had a less expert group been trying to bring Katie back that she would have been at the funeral home that night and not the ICU. I attached pictures of both girls, first of course Katie in her hospital bed. I asked that someone contact me or one of the doctors treating Katie in the ICU or Dr. Ackerman before noon that day and gave all of the contact info.
At 11 that morning I got a call from a Colleen Upton, a clinical specialist, RRT from Cardinal Health. She had read my message, she said they were aware of the problem with their vents (how many people have died from this same problem in the many years since the LTV came on the market?) and was in agreement with me that something must be done to fix it. I told her I had a picture on my phone (the tube is such a constant problem that I'd taken a picture of it a month earlier for the Care Book for Caregives that I made for new nurses & helpers) of the tubing and would send it to her email. She said that she would be working with a team of engineers and therapists to find an answer. We understand why the vent doesn't alarm with the girls' settings but there HAS to be a way to keep this tube on the vent. The 2 tubes next to it are screwed in but for what ever reason this tube is not. Ridonkulous!
Once we got Katie home I slept for 17 hours breaking only to eat and get the girls on the bus for school. She was pooped the first days home also but we wanted her to keep her routine and go to school. At school Betsy and Katie each have their own wonderful nurse and I knew Katie's nurse Mimi would take wonderful care of her. When I started to feel human again I checked my email and I had a request for more pictures of the girls' set-up from Colleen. We wrote back and forth a few other times and then she wrote saying that she would be flying here from Minneapolis for a meeting at our house February 11th with the local Cardinal Health rep and someone from our DME. I am anxious to find out what fixes they have come up with. The girls are now always hooked up to their oximeters whenever they are out of our direct line of sight, as ordered by Dr. Ackerman. We are an active family and previous to this being hooked to oximeters hadn't ever seemed necessary unless one of the girls had pneumonia.
Now for the good part of 2009...
Betsy & Katie have always had alot to say but communication has been difficult since they are both too weak to enunciate. They can make sounds and answer yes/no, Betsy by shaking her right shoulder (her only real movement), Katie by blinking once for no many times for yes (her eyes and brows are her last remaining movement of any kind). I've gotten pretty good at translating through the years, in fact, I've gotten so good at listening closely that I am often the "drive thru" translator when anyone I am riding with tries to order fast food. When my dad, husband, friends can't understand what person taking our order is saying they look to me to decipher "you want fries with that" through the static. Also helpful in figuring out what people with strong accents are saying. I never wanted this supersecret listening talent but I have needed it to make sure Betsy and Katie are getting what they need or want.
When the girls finally returned to school after a month of break, snow days and illness in January they had a GREAT surprise waiting for them. A new program for their computer called Boardmaker, a program that allows them to actually type, punctuate and print notes. WOW, this is HUGE! This is life changing. For the first time ever they are actually able to REALLY express themselves! They have been working on the computer for years using a switch (Betsy with her arm, Katie with her eyebrow) to answer questions of the whole range of academics that they are learning at the time. They have been able to do amazing things with their switches but Boardmaker trumps all.
The girls have been working on writing sentences with this program for a few weeks now. The notes from Betsy have gotten longer and more complex. Katie seems to have a hard time thinking in sentences but she's done 2 good ones so far, "I like blue?? that" and then yesterday, "My pants are wrong!"
I finally got a chance this afternoon to go to school to watch the girls work with their new program and I am blown away by the possibilities! When I got to the girls' resource room at their school (they have their own room at school with their computer, adult sized changing table, bean bags to stretch out on and movies and books for break time when the other kids are at lunch/recess) Katie was waiting for me in front of the computer. I sat down and asked her to write me a note. She is using pre-made words from various groups of choices, body parts, colors, people, verbs, etc. She wrote, "find that? Dad Dad. Dad that Grandpa eyes Doctoringtired where Dad pretty Doctor Katie eyes? helpedmuch Katie Doctor call what purple black with sick mouth I when mouth to eyes glasses Doctor Doctor little". Katie has an appointment with a new dentist in March to do some much needed cosmetic work on her teeth. We had the consultation last week so I thinks she's excited about that and obviously she is beyond READY for new glasses. Before I got there she typed "Mom mad happy red excited sick remember", I guess she was hoping I'd remember to come to school and that made her happy and excited but if I forgot she would be mad, sick and possibly red if I didn't?
Betsy waited patiently while her sister typed singing to herself happily. Once it was her turn though she was NOT messing around. She bypassed the pre-made words screen and went right to the keyboard, "I love you. Lana makesme rite 3 sistas to!" I had asked Katie to write I love you but she was too busy telling me about her eyes and mouth so Betsy wrote it. Her IA Lana had just finished telling me that the technology teacher, Sabrina makes Betsy type 3 sentences before she lets her print so Betsy was telling me that Lana has the same rule. She printed that page and then cleared the screen and started a new page. I asked her what she wanted to do after school today and she wrote, "I want to go to walmrt i ned to biy a slping bad and apallow (a pillow) and shetes for my slep over in march at fkln farast (franklin first church) and we ned to call apera (Apria, our DME) for fedeing bag that big thing ( She went to her Stars bible study group Wednesday night with nurse Sue and I'm guessing she said they'd need to call Apria for some kind of feeding equipment for over night at their sleep over at a church across town in March.) plpre (probably) wont fit in the van that bigu!".
She did all of this letter by letter waiting for what she wanted to be highlighted so she could move her arm and choose the correct letter, punctuation or space. When she would pick a wrong letter she would back space and start over. Amazing! We had to make her put an end on her sentence or she'd still be typing now. Her eyes were bright red from the strain of concentrating on the letters for so long, she had tears streaming when we finally took off her glasses. I am SO ecstatic for the girls to finally have a real form of (mostly) understandable communication.
As Betsy said in her first note she sent home for me on January 22nd, "I feel happy. you are happy about this to!" Indeed I am :)
~A~
I immediately started ambu-bagging her on as much 02 as we (new nurse Melissa, Ashleigh and I) could get to Katie from the portable tanks. Ashleigh called 911 (a first for us in 8 years) and I bagged her as hard as I could all the while yelling at Katie to come back to me while Melissa rubbed her sternum with her knuckles HARD. After Ashleigh called for an ambulance she hooked Katie up to her pulse oximeter, her 02 saturation was 93% and her heart rate was 139. I was getting no response from her at all still so Melissa convinced me to let her ambu while I ran upstairs to get my husband, Doug who was sound asleep after being up all night with no nurse. I had turned off the intercom and baby monitor in our room so that he could get good rest so he hadn't heard any of the commotion at all, the downside of having a big house. Once I roused him we ran back down to continue the code, when Doug yelled at Katie to wake up she finally started making a tiny bit of noise and moving her eyes which had been staring blankly until then. After I yelled "Katie, answer me!!!"
over and over for what seemed like forever she finally blinked.
There are NO words to express the relief I felt. Soon after that the ambulance arrived and quickly our family room was filled with paramedics and medics. We had to move Betsy from next to her sister to make room but she still of course wanted to be close enough to see everything that was happening as she had from the start when Ashleigh found Katie. Betsy is aware of everything so she knew what the consequences would be if we failed to revive Katie. Once Katie was transferred to the gurney to ride in the ambulance left Doug, Melissa and Ashleigh to answer the medics questions so I could put on clothes and throw anything close into my purse. When I got back downstairs I saw Betsy was suddenly hysterical, she had held it together until then. I hugged her and told her that sissy was going to be OK but we had to go to the ER so a doctor could see her. It was like having my guts ripped out to leave her in that state with her daddy and nurse but I had to go with Katie.
Ashleigh volunteered to go with us to help, she's THE BEST. The ambulance driver needed to know where we were going, to "real" Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indy or the new Riley North nearby. I called the girls' fabulous pulmonologist, Dr. Veda Ackerman on her cell phone for the first time ever in 11 years. She answered and I told her what had happened and asked where she wanted us to go and she said Riley North. At first in a daze I started to climb in the front seat of the ambulance, slipped on the huge metal steps and jacked up my leg (didn't even notice til 6 hours later). Then I said I would ride in back with Katie and Ashleigh (a nationally certified EMT who is in the Physicians Assistant program at Butler University here in Indianapolis) would ride in front. I sat down in the little seat and belted myself in all the while talking to Katie so she wouldn't be scared. The medic in back with me, a VERY nice lady, bagged Katie all the way to the hospital while I attempted to suction tons of junk out of her lungs with the too weak ambulance suction. The medic asked how long we've lived in Fishers and was surprised to hear that we've been here 7 years and they had never made a run to our house. I told her that routinely we don't accidentally almost kill our kids so we've never had to call before. The bright spot was that she said now the EMT/Fire department down the street would have all of our info, including the location of the girls' room in case of fire, power outage etc.
We got to the hospital in what seemed like a blink and I was relieved to get there so I could suction Katie's lungs with the powerful suction in the ER. The ambulance suction really was bad, it sucked in a bad way, I was basically dragging snot out of Katie's trach and never getting her airway fully clear. When the back doors of the ambulance opened there was Ashleigh pulling down the gurney legs when they didn't go down right away as the EMT's took Katie inside the ER. Once we were all inside one of Dr. Ackerman's colleagues, Dr. Bysani was waiting for us. He had spoken to Veda and already had a plan for Katie. Once she was transferred to the bed in the ER I could see that Katie's limbs were all still colorless and cold, the doctor ordered warming blankets and Ashleigh vigorously rubbed her feet under the blanket until they were warm and pink.
The first part of the plan was to give Katie a chest x ray, it looked clear and her lungs looked as open as ever. After that Katie was taken to a room in peds ICU. Once we were settled in the room I noticed that Katie was sweaty from the hot blanket (she HATES being hot) and I asked her if she wanted me to uncover her and she glared at me and wouldn't answer. She was pissed and wanted us to GO HOME NOW! That's when I knew I really had her back, I've never been so happy to see her temper! It quickly became clear that she had no memory of what had happened, when we took the girls to see Dr. Ackerman the next week she said that due to the CO2 poisoning/hypoxia that Katie had had a seizure which was why we had such a hard time getting her back.
The doctor ordered for Katie to have Rocephin IM in case their was any aspiration into her lungs that might get infected over night. He said that as long as she did well she could go home the next afternoon after 24 hours. I asked the doctor what we could do to ensure that what had happened to Katie never happen to either of my girls again. He explained that in order for the vent to alarm when this tube (which constantly gets knocked off or is pressured off due to the fact that it has very little surface area to hold on to the small metal port on the side of the vent) comes off the vent would alarm constantly from the leak around the girls trachs that allows them to be verbal. He said we probably wouldn't be able to come up with a solution by the time we left the next day.
By 8 that night all the family, helpers and FREAKED out nurse Melissa had left and it was just Katie and I in her room. I got her settled in with a new to her Elmo movie from the ICU's huge movie closet and I got online using the TV/Computer in the room. I wrote everyone on FaceBook to tell them how Katie was doing and once she finally fell asleep around midnight I took her picture and posted it. I made up the couch/bed with sheets and blankets and tried to settle in to get some sleep.
NOT. Every time I closed my eyes the days events and Katie's lifeless colorless face flashed through my mind like a movie. I couldn't shut my brain off so eventually I gave up and got back on the computer. First I got on the "Trach and Ventilator concerns" group on the SMASpace network and I sent all the members a message. The vent the girls use is probably the most widely used home vent and most of the members of the group use one of the "LTV" models. I wrote the group about what had happened and why. I promised that I would get an answer to this problem so that none of their kids would suffer the same kind of event that happened to Katie. Once I'd sent the message I gave sleep one more try at 3 am or so.
NOT. I got back online and Googled the company who makes the LTV ventilators, Pul
monetic Systems. I found that they are part of Cardinal Health. Once on the site I found that they claimed to have "World Class" tech support so I followed links til I found a contact form. I wrote about what had happened again and why and emphasized that an expert group ran Katie's code, ( I've been bringing both girls back from the brink as has their dad since Betsy first came home from Riley Hospital for Children with her home vent when she was 5 months old.) working along side me during the event was nurse Melissa and uber-helper Ashleigh. I promised them that had a less expert group been trying to bring Katie back that she would have been at the funeral home that night and not the ICU. I attached pictures of both girls, first of course Katie in her hospital bed. I asked that someone contact me or one of the doctors treating Katie in the ICU or Dr. Ackerman before noon that day and gave all of the contact info.At 11 that morning I got a call from a Colleen Upton, a clinical specialist, RRT from Cardinal Health. She had read my message, she said they were aware of the problem with their vents (how many people have died from this same problem in the many years since the LTV came on the market?) and was in agreement with me that something must be done to fix it. I told her I had a picture on my phone (the tube is such a constant problem that I'd taken a picture of it a month earlier for the Care Book for Caregives that I made for new nurses & helpers) of the tubing and would send it to her email. She said that she would be working with a team of engineers and therapists to find an answer. We understand why the vent doesn't alarm with the girls' settings but there HAS to be a way to keep this tube on the vent. The 2 tubes next to it are screwed in but for what ever reason this tube is not. Ridonkulous!
Once we got Katie home I slept for 17 hours breaking only to eat and get the girls on the bus for school. She was pooped the first days home also but we wanted her to keep her routine and go to school. At school Betsy and Katie each have their own wonderful nurse and I knew Katie's nurse Mimi would take wonderful care of her. When I started to feel human again I checked my email and I had a request for more pictures of the girls' set-up from Colleen. We wrote back and forth a few other times and then she wrote saying that she would be flying here from Minneapolis for a meeting at our house February 11th with the local Cardinal Health rep and someone from our DME. I am anxious to find out what fixes they have come up with. The girls are now always hooked up to their oximeters whenever they are out of our direct line of sight, as ordered by Dr. Ackerman. We are an active family and previous to this being hooked to oximeters hadn't ever seemed necessary unless one of the girls had pneumonia.
Now for the good part of 2009...
Betsy & Katie have always had alot to say but communication has been difficult since they are both too weak to enunciate. They can make sounds and answer yes/no, Betsy by shaking her right shoulder (her only real movement), Katie by blinking once for no many times for yes (her eyes and brows are her last remaining movement of any kind). I've gotten pretty good at translating through the years, in fact, I've gotten so good at listening closely that I am often the "drive thru" translator when anyone I am riding with tries to order fast food. When my dad, husband, friends can't understand what person taking our order is saying they look to me to decipher "you want fries with that" through the static. Also helpful in figuring out what people with strong accents are saying. I never wanted this supersecret listening talent but I have needed it to make sure Betsy and Katie are getting what they need or want.
When the girls finally returned to school after a month of break, snow days and illness in January they had a GREAT surprise waiting for them. A new program for their computer called Boardmaker, a program that allows them to actually type, punctuate and print notes. WOW, this is HUGE! This is life changing. For the first time ever they are actually able to REALLY express themselves! They have been working on the computer for years using a switch (Betsy with her arm, Katie with her eyebrow) to answer questions of the whole range of academics that they are learning at the time. They have been able to do amazing things with their switches but Boardmaker trumps all.
The girls have been working on writing sentences with this program for a few weeks now. The notes from Betsy have gotten longer and more complex. Katie seems to have a hard time thinking in sentences but she's done 2 good ones so far, "I like blue?? that" and then yesterday, "My pants are wrong!"
I finally got a chance this afternoon to go to school to watch the girls work with their new program and I am blown away by the possibilities! When I got to the girls' resource room at their school (they have their own room at school with their computer, adult sized changing table, bean bags to stretch out on and movies and books for break time when the other kids are at lunch/recess) Katie was waiting for me in front of the computer. I sat down and asked her to write me a note. She is using pre-made words from various groups of choices, body parts, colors, people, verbs, etc. She wrote, "find that? Dad Dad. Dad that Grandpa eyes Doctoringtired where Dad pretty Doctor Katie eyes? helpedmuch Katie Doctor call what purple black with sick mouth I when mouth to eyes glasses Doctor Doctor little". Katie has an appointment with a new dentist in March to do some much needed cosmetic work on her teeth. We had the consultation last week so I thinks she's excited about that and obviously she is beyond READY for new glasses. Before I got there she typed "Mom mad happy red excited sick remember", I guess she was hoping I'd remember to come to school and that made her happy and excited but if I forgot she would be mad, sick and possibly red if I didn't?
Betsy waited patiently while her sister typed singing to herself happily. Once it was her turn though she was NOT messing around. She bypassed the pre-made words screen and went right to the keyboard, "I love you. Lana makesme rite 3 sistas to!" I had asked Katie to write I love you but she was too busy telling me about her eyes and mouth so Betsy wrote it. Her IA Lana had just finished telling me that the technology teacher, Sabrina makes Betsy type 3 sentences before she lets her print so Betsy was telling me that Lana has the same rule. She printed that page and then cleared the screen and started a new page. I asked her what she wanted to do after school today and she wrote, "I want to go to walmrt i ned to biy a slping bad and apallow (a pillow) and shetes for my slep over in march at fkln farast (franklin first church) and we ned to call apera (Apria, our DME) for fedeing bag that big thing ( She went to her Stars bible study group Wednesday night with nurse Sue and I'm guessing she said they'd need to call Apria for some kind of feeding equipment for over night at their sleep over at a church across town in March.) plpre (probably) wont fit in the van that bigu!".
She did all of this letter by letter waiting for what she wanted to be highlighted so she could move her arm and choose the correct letter, punctuation or space. When she would pick a wrong letter she would back space and start over. Amazing! We had to make her put an end on her sentence or she'd still be typing now. Her eyes were bright red from the strain of concentrating on the letters for so long, she had tears streaming when we finally took off her glasses. I am SO ecstatic for the girls to finally have a real form of (mostly) understandable communication.
As Betsy said in her first note she sent home for me on January 22nd, "I feel happy. you are happy about this to!" Indeed I am :)
~A~
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