Day 26 (part 2)

Me: "What does a goat do?"

Tessa: "Ehhh, Ehhh" (bad goat phonetics on my part not Tessa's)

Me: "What does a frog do?"

Tessa: "Ribbit, ribbit"

Me: "What does a lion do?"

Tessa: "Roooooaaaaarrr"

Me: "What does a doggie do?"

Tessa: "Woof woof"

Me: "What does a snake do?"

Tessa: "Sssssssssssssss"

etc... etc...

Those are all animal sounds that Tessa learned many months ago....and she remembered them! The above wasn't a conversation from 4 months ago. It was an actual conversation from 4 hours ago. I was stunned. The difference between her word usage this morning and this evening was massive.

It was so encouraging to see her laugh and smile as we cycled through some of the same old silly jokes and routines that we've had. It's all coming back and fast.

Vision wise we'll still need to wait and see although the first exam by the opthamologist this afternoon revealed that there is nothing wrong with the eye itself. The optical nerves on both eyes are fine and there was no evidence of damage to either eye. Most likely there is a neurological reason for what's going on but there is still a great chance that whatever vision issues she has now could be reversed.

The physical therapist won't begin any real walking therapy until her catheter is either out or moved from her leg to her shoulder or neck but he was confident that once she begins therapy, it should only take a week or two before she is comfortable back on her feet.

The vision thing really had Katie and I concerned today but we have to keep reminding ourselves not hypothesize about what may or may not happen tomorrow or next week or next year and just stay positive about all the great improvements that are taking place now. We get so engrossed with Tessa's development that it's hard not become almost greedy...wanting more improvement more quickly with more certainty. Obviously that isn't realistic and I keep conjuring up images from that crazy night 2 weeks ago when it seemed to me like we were going to lose her. Got to keep things in perspective...

Right now, my perspective is of Tessa sleeping deeply in her hospital bed and that's satisfying enough right now.