Language complexity, swimming and health stuff...

Maya was laying in her bed with me next to her tonight and she was talking to me about all sorts of things. She noticed my bracelet and she said "Mommy who give you ring?" I told her it was a bracelet and asked her who she thought might have given it to me. She said "Grandpa Jack?" "Auntie Cole?" and I told her no, Richard gave it to mommy. She then proceeded to tell me "Mommy next time talk to Richard get Maya bracelet". Then she said, "sissy big big girl lose teeth." I told her yes, and that the tooth fairy took the teeth and brought sissy $10. At that her eyes got big and she said "sissy big big girl buy bracelet money." Then her eyes got big again and she said, "Ask Richard money buy bracelet Maya big big girl." The complexity of her language is just growing in leaps and bounds!

The other feat for Maya today was that we were in the hot tub tonight and she swam under water without taking in water in her lungs. After that, she keep dunking her head under and up and laughing.

As for Brianna...she has been amazing us these past few weeks with her ever-evolving swimming skills. First it was 2 weeks ago that she first learned to doggie-paddle without the life jacket. Then this past weekend she went underwater for the first time. She quickly progressed to swimming under water with and without goggles. Then yesterday at camp, she jumped off the dock (with a life jacket), but that is huge for Brianna. And tonight, she did the back-float in the hot tub without me holding her. It is amazing to watch her and you can see the gleam in her eyes when she realizes that she can actually do it. Brianna had another big event today at Taekwondo. She earned a trophy because she has 3 medals now and 9 stars for her uniform. She will be taking the test to become a blue belt soon.

-Victoria

Chris here with a Maya health update- Maya is just getting over a sinus/ear infection that she has had for nearly two months. She is taking Levaquin, which is an antibiotic of last resort after being on Augmentin ES, Ceftin, Zithromax and then Clindomycin, none of which helped her in the least. This is one of the same old problems that we hoped would be addressed by the PAPVR surgery, but it looks as if it is truly an immune system problem, complicated by allergies to, among other seasonal things, mold. The allergies, which are mitigated by Zyrtec, but not enough for the worst of high allergen level periods, proceed to post-nasal drip and sinus infection. The same thing happens to Brianna and I at the same time, but antibiotics work on the first try for us both. Maya unfortunately either has worse bacteria that take hold, or some compromise in her immune system that allows the same bacteria that are treatable in Brianna and I to stay alive in her body. We also tried nasal cortisone sprays to reduce inflammation in her sinuses, but they lead to bad nosebleeds in her, as does dry air, so they cannot be used.

Last week she had a sinus cat scan that confirmed sinusitis swelling that was pretty bad. When I discussed the possibility of a fungal infection the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor said that he would have seen the characteristic "spotting" pattern of fungal infections on the cat scan, which he did not. So now we need to pursue the immunological cause of her recurring infections, which the Levaquin is actually working very well on, but it is a focused antibiotic so that may give us a clue as to what particular Immunoglobulin (talking out of my butt here now, not enough research yet) is low in her system and why. Ironically we had a through panel of immunological tests pursuing the same answers last year (when her infections actually went away after Zithromax combined with my cold-killer garlic tea, which she absolutely refuses now), and will now need to delve even further down this road.

Luckily she is very healthy and strong otherwise, and her infections seem confined to the sinuses.