#4 For those of you who have just joined, Shane, Sierra and I moved back to Australia from England for a steady income and so we could have help from our family in February 2008 and have since done 4 trips back to the UK and Europe to get the best possible care for Sierra. While care in Australia exists it does not compare with what is offerred OS.
July 09: We returned to Europe to do a second Stem Cell treatment, see Anel and Tereza for Physio and see the Neurosurgeon and Eye Doctor.
This trip also went well but was clouded by Sierra's increased epilepsy. We have just recently got back on top of the epilepsy by using new medication but this has been a big stop this year since returning in July. It took many months to find the right medication and I was impacted quite a lot by the worry of it all. This has prevented me updating this blog until now.
The good news is that the results of the trip were very powerful.
The stem cell therapy gave Sierra better fine motor skills and she began saying Mamma and grasping especially with her left hand. We also gave her botox all over her body so her muscle tone is much better and she started bringing her arms forward more and that helped her to take her arm over her body and roll. For awhile she was rolling on both sides but now mainly to the left. These are all MAJOR breakthroughs for a child like this!!!!!
The neurosugeon who applied the botox has never met Sierra before and after some assessment confirmed what so far all the therapists say, that she is intelligent.
The eye doctor confirmed that Sierra's vision has improved again. Now we must use glasses again but this time to make both eyes work in a co-ordinated way. At the moment she uses one eye or the other - silly girl!
We feel very proud of what we have accomplished in these 2 years and feel that we have given her the best chance we could at her being independant as she grows up. All the movements she has learnt will really help although we will always have to keep her practicing.
The next most important thing for us to focus on will be language and communication.
