Changes changes changes

Boy life has been crazy here!  So many changes.. Since her adrenal insufficiency diagnosis Madilyn is doing pretty good. She's making HUGE progress at therapy in all areas and it's awesome awesome awesome to hear all of her little words coming back!  (even if some of them are sassy..)

We had our 3rd shunt malfunction in early April... they scare the sh*t out of me!  She recovered beautifully though without any complications.  The downside is that her risk of another malfunction is 20% higher for the next year because they've been in her head messing around with it... ugh.. our only other 2 malfunctions were 6 months apart in 2014.  I can't explain the overwhelming feeling of fear that takes over knowing that a doctor is messing around in your child's brain, it's not something I will ever be okay with.

Seasonal allergies are wreaking havoc on the Peanugga right now and causing feeding issues, (at least we hope that's all it is) that may land us inpatient briefly if we can't get her gut to cooperate... ugh

We've recently had a formula change to attempt to get more calories in her.  Last summer Madilyn was up to 36 pounds and right now she's only 31.  With being so sick prior to the adrenal diagnosis last fall she lost a bunch of weight and we are unable to get it back on her.  At least the problem now is because she's so active!  Her GI doc put her on a higher calorie formula so we actually get to decrease the volume but she gets more calories and hopefully some weight gain.

Now the fun stuff!  Madilyn has a new sidekick...:  Meet Goose!

Goose is a purebred standard poodle and is Madilyn's best friend and service dog in training.  We are currently almost done with our first obedience class and are working with a local training agency and the C.A.R.E Dog Coalition to do all of our training.  Goose has already started coming to her therapies with us and when we go to Children's for appointments on June 5th he will be coming with us.  Madilyn gets so stressed out with the medical stuff that Goose is already being trained in deep pressure therapy (he literally sits on/hugs her) and it's very calming for her.  She can go from crying an puking to giggling within a minute or two thanks to Goose!  The bond between these two is absolutely amazing to see.

I'm procrastinating as usual on the school thing... we need to tour a local special needs program and see how willing to work with us they are.  I wish transition wasn't so hard for her (and us)... I think we may both need some new little pink shoes for that one....