Swim Class Part 2

We are happy to report that Grace is really enjoying her swim class now. I ended up going in the pool with her during the second class and then Jason when in with her for the third class. We think she was just adjusting to her new surroundings. It has really become a great Saturday routine for us. It doesn't seem like she is really learning a lot, but we are all having a lot of fun doing it as a family. We are learning a lot of different techniques to use when we have Grace in the pool so at least we are getting something out of it. She isn't really swimming yet, but she is definitely getting used to the water. We sing a lot of songs and incorporate different movements to the tunes. Grace also gets a chance to practice "jumping" into the pool. Which basically means we stand her up on the side and carry her into the pool. Here are a few pictures from this past Saturday.

Above is a picture of Grace learning how to do the superman pose while reaching for the ball.

The picture above shows Grace trying to grab different colored boxes. At the end we had to put them in the correct bin.

The picture above shows Grace practicing her kicks and scooping motion.

The above picture shows Grace practicing her jumps. She really just wanted to sit on the side of the pool though.

We were practicing some sort of song here, but I don't remember which one. It may have been "The Wheels on the Bus".

On the road to recovery...

On Monday my mom went to Strong Memorial Hospital for stereotactic radiosurgery. Click on this link to learn more about it:

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neurosurgery/neuroendocrine/treatments/Stereotactic-Radiosurgery.cfm

It went really well, but it was a very long day. We had to get to the hospital by 6am. When we arrived they took her back and got her settle in (inserted IV and gave her some sort of sedative). Then she was transported to the radiology department for the MRI. This took about 45-60 minutes to complete. After that she was transported to another department. This was the worst part of the day. They had to numb her forehead and the back of her head. At this point Peej lost it a little bit because the pain was so extreme. I love to watch medical shows, but I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. It was the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen. After her head was numb they screwed in the headgear (which was a lot heavier than we thought it would be). They actually used a screwdriver to insert the pins into her head. It was insane. Thankfully she couldn't feel this part. Fortunately at this point the worse was over.

Once the headgear was in place we were taken to another department where the CAT scan was performed with the Medical Physicists. This took about 30-45 minutes to complete. Then we were transported back to the 23 hour unit. Peej was finally able to eat some strawberry jello at this point but of course she was still starving.

We learned that Dr. Milano had an earlier opening so instead of waiting until 3:30 for the treatment, they were able to take her at 1:30pm. We were so thankful for this. The actual treatment took about 15 minutes and then they were able to take the headgear off. The spots where it was screwed in were a little tender, but they gave her some vicodin for it. We were able to leave the hospital at 3:30 which was wonderful.

Peej is feeling really good today and she is very thankful that they were able to do this procedure instead of operating and taking the tumor out. Her head has some bruising from the headgear and her eye has a small black and blue, but other than that, you wouldn't even know what happened. She has to go back in about 4 months for another MRI to see if this worked. We will keep you updated.

First Swim Lesson...

did not go as planned. We have a swimming pool in our backyard so we have always wanted to take Grace to the YMCA for swim classes. Well she has really developed a love of water over the past few months so we thought it was time to sign her up. We have been so excited about this for the past few weeks. I went shopping for a bathing suit and cover up for Grace last week and we decided that Jason would go in the pool with her. The class started on Saturday and this is what Grace thought about it...

She literally cried for about 20 minutes straight. We couldn't believe it. She loves going in the bathtub at home and she loved going in our pool last summer. We think she may have wanted me (Stacey) to go in with her or she was just a little scared of her new environment. This is how the class ended....

Hopefully next week will be more like the second video. I'm going to try and bring my suit on Saturday so I can try to calm her down and we can switch if she gets upset. It was a great parenting lesson for us though!