Overdue updates about my sweet Emma

Emma, Thanksgiving 2010

Sorry for neglecting this blog for SO long.  My only excuse is that, being chronically ill now myself, I just don't have the energy to do all that I used to.  But there are some important updates about Emma that must be posted.

First big thing to let you know about: Emma's post-surgery recovery continues, and she's doing well! This part might be particularly of interest to the parents of TAR Syndrome kids who are thinking about similar arm/wrist surgery for their little ones.

In order to avoid confusion, I should remind everyone at this point that Emma has names for her hands.  The right hand is "Handy" and the left is "Iggy".  She named them herself when she was very little, perhaps two years old....we have NO idea where she got the idea to give her hands names!  She used to actually talk to them just as if they were people, scolding them, questioning them, playing with them.....it was really just too funny!

She doesn't talk to them so much anymore, but still refers to them by their names, so I will too.  The hand she uses most is Iggy, so the doctor decided to operate first on the right side (Handy).



It's been five months now since the surgery, so she no longer wears a cast on her right arm. She has a splint to sleep in, and Kinesio Tape to wear at all times.   

customized splint

Kenesio Tape

Handy before surgery

Before surgery, she could move Handy in nearly any direction, as if double-jointed or something.   Now it seems that Handy is well-supported, not so floppy.  Her right arm is not as straight as I thought it would be, but her wrist is definitely much firmer, more solid.  This will hopefully help her in the future, although she is still not using Handy to pick things up.

Handy after surgery

Second important piece of info about Emma: as you know if you've been following her, Emma learned to walk just a few months ago.  She's four years old, but has a form of cerebral palsy with ataxia due to her very rare congenital cerebellar malformation: rhombencephalosynapsis (RS).  She has been diagnosed with an even rarer syndrome associated with RS, Gomez-Lopez-Hernandez Syndrome (aka cerebello-trigeminal-dermal dysplasia).

Because of her ataxia, Emma tends to fall down quite frequently.  Recently she fell and banged the same spot on her forehead 3 times over a period of just a few days.  She ended up with two black eyes, looking like a little raccoon.  We realized at that point that we had to buy her some sort of protective equipment for her head, and I did an Internet search and found this helpful site: http://www.kidsafetyhats.com/ 

Here's Emma's new ProtectaCap+Plus, and she likes it!  It has not made her sweat, thus far, during winter, and has protected her head during a number of falls.  Her black eyes have finally faded, and she looks like her pretty self again!

 

Emma is doing better every day, and is constantly surprising us with her amazing vocabulary (some of her new words: stupendous and outstanding)!  I hope to make another video soon.