Piper’s Progress is Official!

For those of you who have been following the sporadic updated that Reagan and I have been posting regarding Piper’s Progress, you will be pleased to know that our observations were validated yesterday afternoon. Piper’s doctors hold a monthly meeting with her primary doctor, the therapy coordinator, nurse practitioner and social worker. Yesterday was the second of these types of visits. Unfortunately Reagan wasn’t able to schedule things with work this time, so only I was able to attend. As we had suspected, Piper was testing much higher in most categories, than she was after the initial evaluation. First of all, her vent (breathing machine) settings have successfully been reduced almost in half. Meaning, that Piper is doing almost twice as much of the breathing, under her own power. If this continues, her doctor is going to try to put her on the portable vent for the first time in as early as 2 weeks. Piper must be able to maintain very stable vitals on the portable vent before she is able to come home. So this will be a pretty huge step if it does indeed happen. Piper has made significant strides in her ability to track and focus on what is going on around her. She is able to maintain her attention on objects much better than she previously could. She has had a series of auditory screenings that are still inconclusive. They know that her hearing works to a certain degree, but are having difficulty trying to gauge how well. She has however responded to audible stimulation. Piper’s orthopedic doctors have been working on a foam mold for her stroller seat that will help with align her posture when she sits in it. There are currently a few issues that are causing problems in that area. First, they discovered that some of her posterior ribs appear to be fused together. Also, her left clavicle and scapula don’t appear to be fully ossified. Regarding her pulmonary hypertension, she is still on the same meds for that, and hasn’t had any serious episodes, as of late. Her doctor feels like it may be something that she will just grow out of, as it is most likely a byproduct of the respiratory trauma that she has experienced. It is so great to have our observations in Piper’s progress validated occasionally. She has been so much fun lately. She is an amazing little squirt.