Thanksgiving!

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we had several family members that came to our house for the day. Keely did so well all day long. My cousins daughter brought her new puppy, which is about the size of a beanie baby. I think when Keely first saw it she thought it was a stuffed animal. She did really well with it for the most part. She pet it and even shared one of her toys with it. She would get upset and say "dog" every time anyone tried to move the puppy away from her.

Some of the family that was there had not seen her since last year. Everyone thought she looked and acted so much better than last year. She is so much more calm now and last year the noise upset her and she spent most of the day hiding in her room. Not this year though, she took one short break in her room to do her listening therapy and the rest of the time she was out with everyone else. It was so nice to see her handle everything so well.

We have recently started Keely on NourishLife Speak. "NourishLife speak™ contains a patented blend of concentrated and purified omega-3s from fish oil (EPA and DHA), natural vitamin E (d-alpha and d-gamma tocopherols), Vitamin K (K1 and K2), borage oil (GLA) and natural orange flavor in 1200 mg soft gelatin capsules." (That was from the company website.) We have noticed Keely is responding and comprehending much better. One day her dad was trying to feed her a sandwich and I was in the other room and I heard her say "orange please". It was funny because it took my husband a little bit to process that she just requested what she would rather have and said please after it. And yes, of course she got an orange. She also has said "thanks" several times lately for helping her or giving her something....oh how I love that polite little girl!

She got pretty sick with a sore throat and coughing last night while we were at work. My mom called worried about her so I ended up going home. JT ended up coming home as well since we thought there for a little bit she might need to go to the emergency room. JT asked her if she had another dirty diaper and she looked up at him and smiled and said "no". She has never answered questions like this before. It was pretty late and she was still up since every time she laid down she started coughing really bad. She was sitting in the recliner playing a game on the iTouch when we told her it was time for her to go to bed. She got up and walked to her room and climbed up in bed, all by herself! It is always so hard for me to believe a supplement or new treatment can cause such big results, but it seems this one is working very well for her. There have only been a few things we've done where we have seen dramatic results. Most everything we do seems to help a little and it just seems like such a slow process so it's always good to get something where you can see some big changes...it helps you keep that hopeism. So...the things that have shown the biggest results for Keely have the GFCF diet, B12 injections, LDN cream, secretin infusions, and now, hopefully, the Speak supplement.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful to all the mommy warriors (and daddy warriors and doctors who have the courage to practice outside of the "norm") that came before me and led the way in biomedical treatments that I am using to heal my daughter. She is improving daily and for that I am thankful!

The ABC's....never sounded so sweet!

What a great week we have had. Keely is making progress everyday. It's slow progress, but it's progress and we couldn't ask for more. First of all, she went to see her occupational therapist on Tuesday. We had been sick and had some other issues come up that she had not seen her in three weeks. She was suprised by how well Keely was doing. She said her language was really coming all and she was saying so many new words and that her play and imitation was so much better.

Keely has been getting speech therapy through the public schools. I had asked her OT a couple of times about whether she needed to be getting speech therapy privately as well. We had always decided to wait since she really didn't have enough words to really work with. Well this week, Keely was doing so well with her speech, that she told us it was time to start private speech therapy along with what she was getting as school. We are so excited and looking forward to get it all set up.

We also went back to Texas to see her doctor this week. In the waititng room they have a rug with the alphabet on it. Keely started saying her abc's and then at the end she went on to sing the part about next time won't you sing with me. She said it a few times while we were there and a couple of more times on the way home. I am pretty sure it was the sweetest abc's I have ever heard!

The visit went well. She got another secretin infusion and some new supplements. This is her third secretin infusion. They seem to really help her. She seems to use more words after getting them.

A New Haircut

Well we have all been sick for about a week now so I haven't gotten a chance to update the new blog. Keely got a new haircut last week and it went so well I just have to share with everyone. When I called to schedule her appointment our hair stylist, who is a friend of mine from high school, said something like oh no that's going to be hard. I reminded her that the last couple of times it had gone pretty well so I wanted to try it.

I took her right after she got out of school. She climbed up in the chair and sat down just like a champ. She pretty much sit still the entire time and actually got a haircut, not just a trim, but an actual hair cut. It looks so cute! And as we were leaving the girl who cuts her hair made a comment that she did better than most five year old kids that she does. YAY! Good job Keely. I think she was a little proud of herself too because the rest of the day she walked around smiling like she was justing looking too cute.

Keely also has a new favorite word, away. It actually is really funny because it's like a two year old telling you no for everything except she tells you away. If she doesn't want to do what you want her to, its away, like move away from me. If she doesn't want her dinner, its away, as in move that food away. If she wants to leave, its also away. I love to hear her talk though, so any word, no matter how often, is wonderful!