Our visit with Amanda!!!

On the journey home from UT, we made a stop to visit my dear friend Amanda in Denver. Amanad just bought a new townhouse in the Stapleton area of Denver- she had only been in her new place one night before we got there. The new townhouse is REALLY nice and it was so wonderful to see her!! Timmy really grew fond of Amanda too!

Hydro Conference informational

We just got back from our trip out west to attend the Hydrocephalus Conference in Park City, UT. The trip was full of many ups and downs- but all in all the conference itself was a highlight for me- and probably will be for years to come.

One of the highlights was having our friend Christin (from OH- whom I met at the 2004 conference) stay with us in the condo we rented for the weekend. It was so wonderful to hang out and catch up with her.

Another highlight was the fact that the conference was FULL of information on the ETV surgery that I had done (back in 2002). Normally- hydrocephalus is treated with a shunt but after 18 attempts on having a shunt function in my brain- I had the ETV procedure done (and have been okay since). I learned that right now (according to the most recent studies) there is a 50/50 chance that I will never have issues with my hydrocephalus again!

Watch the video of Christin putting a shunt in a fake brain :)

More pics from the conference

Here are some more pictures from the hydrocephalus conference. The first is Christin during one of our breaks when we went out for fresh air. The second is of Sherman Alexie- giving his keynote speech on Saturday afternoon (he is a best-selling and award winning author who happens to also have hydrocephalus). The third picture was taken outside the conference.

A trip to Navy Pier

There are many wonderful things about living so close to Chicago. One of them is being able to take full advantage of all the activities in the city (w/out the cost of living in the city!!). On Wednesday night- we headed for the city to go to Navy Pier and had a wonderful time. Timmy did lots of walking and climbing- and had a GREAT time at the "magic mirrors". Additionally- every Wed, Fri & Sat night- Navy Pier has free Fireworks- which mesmorized Timmy. It was a great time! (and made us feel a little better about not being able to leave on our trip on time :)

Posting a little slow these days

Hi... I"ve been having a hard time getting much done the past week or two. I've been battling this virus and it's been exhausting. Hopefully soon we'll be back up & running.

In the meantime- I'm happy to report that Timmy's nose has finally stopped running! And he seems to be in perfect health. Also- his speech/language just gets better and better. He is now starting to say TWO word phrases! We went from about 12-15 words to probably close to 30 (or more) and two word phrases in a matter of weeks! We just love that Miss Nicole!!

We are looking forward to our trip out west but have to wait until this virus is under control. I'll be bringing my computer so plan to post while on the trip. Thanks