I only just now got home and Cathy has already managed to update.
I wanted to add that I, for one, am less bummed about the news from Monday. The bad news came from a doctor who has seen Maria ONE time. She also ignores the fact that a substantial part of Maria’s developmental problems are vision and hearing related. Those are both improving so it seems logical that she will start developing at an accelerated pace. It occured to me that maybe the reason her other neurological skills are building so slowly is that her brain is concentrating on reparing the vision and hearing problems.
I’m not blinding myself to the possible badness down the road. I’m still very concerned by how slowly Maria develops new skills, but she’s made fools of the doctors before (“She’ll be completely blind her whole life”, “She’ll never drink from a bottle”). Mild-to-severe learning disabilities are common with hydrocephalus. That doesn’t mean she can’t live a normal life that includes regular school, college, and a career.
Andy,
I am so moved by your keeping up on all of Maria’s progress and wanting to let the rest of the world know as well. What a wonderful uncle Maria has!
Don’t ever lose that hope you have for her. There is so much being learned and done to better the lives of all of us who live with hydro that it’s really impossible to say at this point what her future will be like. Know also that my folks were never able to say with any degree of certainly that I’d graduate high school and college, drive, marry, and have children, and I have done all of these. Always hope for the best and encourage Maria to be anything she wants to be. She’ll thank you. I know.
LIZARD
Thanks, LIZARD. We go back and forth between hoping for the best and fearing the worst. All we can do is keep doing what we are doing and let Maria figure it out.