June was a tough month. Mommy and Daddy weren't getting much sleep with Baby Alexandria still not sleeping through the night. Also we found out that I got another three letter acronym CVI....which stands for
cortical visual impairment. Basically it means that although my eyes work and function, the signals are not being processed properly by my brain. It's the result of the
PVL (periventricular leukomalacia) I suffered while in the NICU. We didn't really know how much vision I had as a baseline but what the ophthalmologist told us was that typically there will be some improvement. That is why I find it difficult to make eye contact or track objects. It's not that I am shy and don't want to look at you but people with CVI have better peripheral vision, so I am not looking directly at you so I can better see you.
As you can imagine the CVI news was pretty shocking and dampened everyones spirits. I think Daddy must also have some visual impairment to go out in public like this....
But the CVI was just another hurdle that we'd have to deal with so Mommy and Daddy did some research since traditional western medicine didn't really have any treatment options for the CVI, PVL or cerebral palsy. They heard some stories of other people who had brain injuries getting acupuncture and improving. Well, if you do some research there is lots of evidence that acupuncture can help people who have had a stroke regain function. So we decided to give it a try.
The first acupuncturist Mommy and Daddy took me too was an awful experience. The acupuncturist was a traditionally trained one from China, who believed in a regimen of multiple needles done quickly all over the body. Let's just say, I felt like a pin cushion or a voodoo doll.
It was torture for me and Mommy, who had to hold me. We did a few sessions and I got use to the ones in my head but the ones to the body were no fun. So Daddy talked to Auntie Edith (his old roommate) who is an acupuncturist and got some recommendations on acupuncturist that worked with pediatrics. After a bunch of calls and referrals, we ended up finding Carla Cassler, an acupuncturist in Albany. Let's just say the experience with Carla was night and day. My first session with Carla, I hardly felt the needles in my head.
Carla practiced a Japanese style where the needle didn't need to be insert as deep. She kept in mind that I am just little and there isn't a lot of meat on my bones requiring the needles to be jammed in. My sessions with Carla were fun! She even showed Mommy and Daddy how to do some stimulation of meridian points using a toothbrush.
The acupuncture was giving us all some hope that we could try to stimulate the neural pathways in my brain to help both the cerebral palsy and cortical visual region. If nothing else, we'd be unblocking my meridians and helping my Qi flow.
Otherwise on the health front, I continued to do my therapies and worked on my sitting and head control.
Little sister Alexandria was growing fast and getting cuter everyday.
I was enjoying being the big sister and happy to have a little sister.
Even though I got the gloomy news in June, all I can do is laugh and hope for the best.
