michaeldthomas

Yesterday was Caitlin's regular appointment with her Pediatric Epileptologist/Neurologist at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. We made the man positively giddy with our total lack of news. Caitlin has been seizure free since February. She continues to excel at school, and her general health and well-being are exquisite. This gives our doctor nothing to do, and he couldn't be any happier.

When Caitlin first met him over five years ago, her infantile spasms were out of control. She would have 5-7 series of spasms per day, each lasting 5-10 minutes. She was filled with barbiturates that did nothing but make her a floppy baby zombie. We've come a long way.

The main thing we talked about was the FDA approval of her anti-epileptic drug last week. We've been importing it from Canada and the UK for the last 4 1/2 years at a cost of about $1800 per year. It wasn't even tax-deductible. Now, our insurance and medicaid waiver should pay for all of it. This is kind of a good thing. :-)

Since our appointment only lasted 20 minutes, we decided to walk to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was the kind of gorgeous day that makes you think that Chicago is the greatest city in the world. I forgot how much I love that zoo. It's the perfect size for a nice day out. Not to mention, it's also free. Caitlin had a great time. She especially enjoyed the bears and penguins. She actually got angry when I informed her that she couldn't swim in the penguin habitat.

It was a perfect way to end our summer.

All three of us have a cold. Blech.

Not much going on around here. I got a couple of critiques back on a short story. This morning I think I came up with a way to fix the broken parts.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to get a lot of writing time for the next couple of days. Caitlin has doctors' appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday is her big swallow study. She gets to eat by mouth for the first time in five years. While she eats barium-laced food (yum), they x-ray her to see if she's still aspirating. If Caitlin shows that she's made some progress, our appeal for Oral Motor/Speech Therapy should be successful. Please keep your fingers crossed.

Other than that, I'm reading Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint for the first time. This is the book selection of the month for our public library's SF/F/H book club. For some reason, it's making me very nostalgic for high school.