Annabelle's Blog: 3 years later

Three years ago today we had an appointment with Annabelle's incredible neurologist to discuss her MRI results. We had no idea what was ahead of us. When we sat down with Dr. Hughes she showed us her own MRI then Annabelle's MRI. She explained how different Annabelle's brain was and the areas of the brain that are effected. We heard the word Polymicrogyria for the first time in our lives and had a million questions which she sat and answered along with handing us tissues and was so very caring (and at this time was still a student, so grateful after she graduated Strong offered her a permeant position). The biggest questions - what was ahead of us? Will she walk? Will she sit up? Will she be able to eat? What will be the quality of her life? The answer to all of these were "we have to wait and see, every child develops differently with PMG", an answer no parent wants to hear.

Fast forward 3 years, Annabelle is great and always amazing us! She is thriving in an integrated preschool, so very smart, and even walking a bit now. She still has her delays, her fine motor skills are very delayed, she can't feed herself with a fork or spoon, she has no expressive words (but 30-40 signs along with using pictures for identification), and her walking is similar to a drunken sailor on the rough seas but she tries harder than I thought anyone ever could. Even on days she is exhausted, a therapist walks into the classroom and she's all business. She loves all of her therapists at CP Rochester, as do I, which makes it much more fun for her.

Annabelle's future is still a big question mark but many of our questions from February 11, 2011 have been answered. She's going to walk, she can communicate, she can attend school. We still have our rough days, we still morn the future she could have had without the PMG, but we cherish everyday we have with her - our little miracle!

Flashback to the morning of the appointment