Opthamalogist appointment

    Yesterday morning Amaya had her check up with the opthamalogist. When she had her eye exam back in December the eye doctor said her eye pressure was elevated. Her readings were twice the normal reading. They told us that was a sign that she could have glaucoma and that it could lead to blindness. We were obviously surprised and worried. We've been waiting ever since for a referral and appointment.
    The night before the appointment Amaya mentioned her anxiety and fear. We tried to calm her, but I understood her fears. At the last appointment they did the eye pressure test (the puff of air in the eye) about ten times in each eye. I was also a little nervous. I wondered what it would mean if she did have it, what would be next, etc. I tried hard to stay calm and not worry. I've had to learn to just wait until I know something before I start to worry. When the opthamalogist came in he said that as a pediatric opthamologist he never checks for eye pressure in children because its hard to get an accurate reading, and it usually scares and traumatizes the child and unnecessarily worries the parents. He said she wasn't showing any other signs of glaucoma, but decided to dilate her eyes and examine them to make sure the eyes looked healthy. When he left to get the nurse Amaya starting crying and getting scared. She didn't want eye drops or anything. We finally got her to calm down, and I was SO thankful that Josh went with me to the appointment. He does a great job of keeping us all calm. While we waited for the nurse Josh told Amaya that after having a fixator pretty much everything else in life is easy. Getting eye drops and your eyes dilated isn't very comfy, but by no means compares to a fixator! I don't think she realizes how tough she is! When the doctor returned he looked at her eyes and said that her eyes were "normal." Wow, I was so happy!
    Over the past couple of months we've had the extra stress and worry about her eyes and the bed sore on her heel. Its so nice to finally have both of those things taken care of. Well, for the most part. We're still taking care of the heel, but at least we know we won't be having surgery on it any time soon. I can't tell you how nice it is to have stress removed. One less thing to worry about!

Later we went to our therapy appointment. They started on the mat doing leg lifts.

Melissa put a two lb. weight on Amaya's left leg and had her do leg lifts. That's half a pound heavier that she's been doing. She did really well with the extra weight.

Then she climbed the ladder with the two pound weight on. She did really well. I told Melissa that over the weekend Amaya climbed up and down stairs (at least thirty) and did excellent. We were in Hollywood and there were a bunch of stairs at a mall and I noticed how well Amaya was climbing. She was alternating her feet on every step, keeping her balance and not turning her foot in. These are all things Melissa has been working on with her. Its nice to see her progress! 

Then Amaya did her "donkey kicks." Amaya says this one is tough work, but she's getting better at it. Melissa said this would be a good one to do at home for homework. 

Then we went in the hall to work on running. But instead of just running they played tag. Amaya tried to tag Melissa who would then tag Lidie then Lidie would chase Amaya. And over and over. It was fun! Its great how Melissa turns work into fun! I mentioned to Melissa what the other PFFD person told us the other day about how hard of a time she had without her therapy. Melissa has played such a HUGE role in Amaya's lengthening and recovery. And she's made it fun for Amaya so that she wants to keep up with her therapy homework. After running Amaya practiced skipping. She kind of got it, but had a hard time finding a rhythm.

After some tip toe work we went into the adult gym to do some balance work. Amaya stood on her left leg, and right tip toe and gave Melissa a high five with her right hand. She was quite wobbly but Melissa had her do it until she was steady.

Back in the gym Melissa put 3 lb. weights on Amaya's left leg and had her do leg lifts. She did really well with that even though it was twice the normal weight. 

Then Amaya did some balance work with cones. Bending over to pick them up was a little tricky. She was wobbly, but then got the hang of it.

After that she stood on her left leg to see how long she could balance on it. Melissa counted thirty-eight seconds! It was about a month ago that she was doing fifteen seconds.

Then came the knee bends. Amaya had a new high starting number, 128! It excites me because I know our homework if paying off! She quickly jumped to 134. Then said, "it doesn't even hurt." I think she was pretty surprised by that. Then she jumped and worked to get to 140. I asked if that's all she could do and she said she could do "a little more." With a push she got an extra two degrees for a new high number, 142 degrees! I have a feeling we will continue to get "new high numbers." And that's fantastic!