Wordless Wednesday...

Yes, there is pink in Amanda's hair!!!

Izzy Update...

Saturday...
Matt & dad worked on the swing. It is basically a piece of wood 3'X4' that hangs from the ceiling. She swings 4 minutes during each session of therapy. She seems to really relax so she has been swinging a lot this week. (Please remember when looking at this photo of the therapy room that we had been out of town several days and were working on all these new pieces of equipment :)

This is the inside of the hyperbaric chamber (hbot - hyperbaric oxygen therapy). We 'dive' at 1.5 atmospheres of pressure breathing 100% oxygen!

We also were trying to make "rolling" more fun so we basically

raised up one end of Izzy's queen sized mattress so that she can roll down the bed. We just put it down at bedtime...

Here is a picture of her after rolling down! She does actually enjoy it.

There have been several exciting things happen since we have been doing therapy so I wanted to update before I forget everything...

Sunday...

We were talking about Izzy doing so well identifying the cvs cards we use while masking for the Australians. (the cvs cards are basically 11X11 sheets of white paper with specific pictures of different things. When we do masking (60 sec.) we show her 10 cards 1 at a time and only say the name of the object. We rotate the 160 cards, using 10 per week. Matt was saying we should do cards to do colors and I thought she probably already knew colors... so we decided to find out. We got some toys that were bright colors and just held up two and said, "Izzy, look at the red toy." She got them all right! So, question answered... she knows her colors!

Later we did our first round of her new programme. She cried a lot but still did great on the assisted crawling.

Monday...

We went to hippo therapy. Izzy rode Doc. She did great and sat up well. She was so tired by the time we finished! It was fun for her and she enjoyed seeing the horses.

We did another round of the programme and she seemed so much happier about it this time. She did 20 ft. of assisted crawling so well. We were very impressed. She also did her new exercise called sit ups well and held her head good. She leaned for kisses when prompted.

Today...

Finally went to the dds to schedule her dental work ... YEAH!

The dentist was very nice and is making calls to get her procedure scheduled. It will probably be about two weeks from Thursday.

When we were in the waiting room I had her new baby Mozart toy that says colors in three languages...along with music. We kept pushing yellow and I would say, "say yellow." Matt says that she said yellow three times and then when we pushed red and I told her to say red she wouldn't...

Tonight we did her programme and she did well again, she was so tired tonight she kept trying to fall asleep. She did great again on the assisted crawling and even pulled her leg up herself this time which was new! She then put her little hiney in the air like babies do when they are trying to crawl... also new! This is all so encouraging!

Please keep praying! She is doing so great.

Love, Annie

"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Psalms 33:20-22

AIAHP Re-assessment...

Well, we are home from Ponca City. We had a nice visit with the Morris family, with Chad & Tim, and also met the family from India.

Deepa and Sumatra brought their autistic son Rik to be reassessed by AIAHP also. They were very nice people and it was interesting to learn a little about their culture.

We got four hbot dives in while there, Matt learned to run the chamber so it was pretty convenient. I am hoping he will zip down with me more often to help out with the chamber.

Okay, on with the assessment. I am looking at the progress report we were given...

Under staff's opinion it reads: With 5 profile changes and 18 functional changes, it is our opinion that Izzy has made "very good" progress. A functional change is progress but doesn't move you up on the actual scale. A profile change is a move up the ladder on the sheet with what levels Izzy is at. There may be many functional changes before getting a profile change.

A few highlights of the assessment was when put on the floor to simulate a slide (to be done as assisted crawling after cross patterning) Izzy pushed off Chad's thumb with her leg each time. She also pulled with her arm. Chad was skeptical, thinking maybe she was using tone, until Izzy cried and stopped pushing. When we told her to push again, she did. I think she really surprised both Chad and Tim on that one. Later before we left, Chad was looking at our CVS cards. He said, "do you think Izzy knows the pictures?" We think so. So he showed her two and then held both up saying "Izzy, look at the plant (or elephant, or dice, or ...)." She did five of six times. The time she didn't she just looked irritated with their little game. She looked directly and instantly at the one called out and even appeared to almost point at it. They were really excited. Me & Matt were tired and ready to go home, I think the thought we should have shown more excitement (I was excited on the inside).

We were given a new programme to do. It will take a little bit of time to get things needed to do this new programme. Also we are going to have to somehow recruit new and more volunteers as the cross patterning takes three people & they would like it to be done many times a day. I think if you asked how I felt about it, I would say positive but a bit overwhelmed. I think it is awesome that she has even shown Chad and Tim her tenacity. She is definitely a fighter and they both said that is something about her that makes her such a good candidate for recovery. They said they loved that she is a little fighter.

We know that God is Isabelle's healer. We believe that God is healing Isabelle. We are simply preparing the field. We are ready for a big crop!!!!

Thanks for the prayers & love. If you happen to live close and want to devote 30-60 minutes a week to help exercise Izzy (very simple, no experience or talent in this area needed) please contact us!

Love you all.

Lots of things happing for Izzy ...

There are a lot of things going on this week for Izzy.

We have our assessment in Ponca with the guys from Australia. I'm excited to see how she does, I know she has made improvements so I look forward to seeing how the programme is changed up...

Izzy was approved for tefra so next week we see a new dentist to start getting her teeth issue resolved (yea).

Izzy recieved a letter from make a wish this last week.

Please keep Izzy in your prayers. I know that God is in control and I must simply be still... a little tough when there is so much to do :)

Love to all!

Annie

We built a wood stander that has an adjustable incline so that we can Izzy can stand on her hip joints and feet more. It seems to be working well and she is tolerating it well. When Dr. Wright wrote the Rx for hip x-rays I called Izzy's pediatrician's office and was surprised to be connected to Dr. Beard. She said she would make the appointments for the x-ray etc. They later said that the specific xray requested needed to be done at the hospital so we will go there to make the appointment. I don't think her hip is compromised, but will have the xray done before the botox appointment as requested. I talked to the chiropractor that Izzy's visits on Tuesdays & Thursdays about her back and posture. Just discussing it made me realize that her posture has weakened since we started AIAHP which is when we stopped working on sitting up because it is their belief that sitting up leads to sitting up and the child should be prone on the floor as much as possible. Heath suggested that by not sitting up and utilizing those large muscles in the back they could become weak, so we are doing more sitting exercises to strengthen those muscles. Izzy went to school this week, she is such a healthy girl. It is wonderful that she remains so well. Today was her Valentine's party. She has 9 boys in her class now... she's the only girl. I made little shovels for each boy. I posted a pic on the other blog. Anyway, they turned out cute and she seemed to enjoy the party. After lunch today I showed her each valentine and read them to her. I love Valentine's Day!

Last night Matt was surprised with a call from Thurman Scrivner himself... They talked for a while and then Thurman prayed with Matt. It was a lift.

I have mentioned the ongoing quest for tefra... I thought we were at the end of the approval process. We were told to expect a call from a nurse for a home visit. She called, and came... but I was told it was still part of the qualification process. Hopefully this will be done quickly so we can finally get Izzy's teeth fixed. I am having thoughts that I should have just had them fixed and dealt with it but the more time I invest in this tefra business, knowing she qualifies (it is based soley on her income, not ours) I am more determined to see this through.

I guess there is not really any BIG news to report for this week... I just wanted to let you know that Izzy is well and that she is continuing to improve. Please keep praying & believing!