Day 109 I took Jenny to see her neurophysiology specialist, Dr. Mak, at the KL General Hospital on Friday. He ran another round of nerve conduction tests to see how well she has fared since the last time he tested her. The good news is that her right leg has improved, and is likely to recover to full strength. However, her left foot is still not responding. There was a complete absence of nerve conduction. It was as if the nerve was completely cut off. It is unfortunate as after the first 6 months, the chances of recovery is slim. She may well have to live with her foot drop for the rest of her life... However, she feels that the pain in her left foot is slowly improving. It isn't quite as painful as it was last month. Not sure if it's because it's actually improving, or it's because we switched from a mix of gabapentin (Neurontin) and celexocib (Celebrex) to gabapentin and tramadol (Tramal). But any good news is still good news.
Day 120 Thanks to my godsister, Liza, we hooked up with Joy Dowdy, a speech pathologist in Penang. This is the first time Jenny has had her speech problems analyzed by a professional like her. Her evaluation was that Jenny is doing really well even though she did not undergo any speech therapy. She obviously has a lot to work on but she can read well and most importantly, she is aware that she has this problem. Without self-awareness and the ability to read and understand, it would be much harder. So now the plan would be for her to work regularly (several times a week) with a speech therapist in PJ as well as at home. If we work on it real hard, she can correct most, if not all, of her speech problems.
Ooh! Quite a good news! In the meantime, I'll be studying some brain functions due to the sake of understanding pattern recognitions. Maybe I'll get some info about them.
Well, she's still not singing... but she's taking the time to read newspapers. Oh well, one step at a time!
Oh yes, she can.. but she gets some things wrong sometimes, and she can say things in reverse. For example, she will say "Go" when she means "Come"... or "Papa" when she means "Mama".
Oh, that is still a progress anyway! Keep practising and she'll speak well! Any other word confusions which you and she will tackle together?
Day 146 Dr. Lau was super nice. He called us up on his own time to ask about her condition and even helped us arrange for an ENT consult. Thanks to him, I was able to take Jenny for that appointment this morning. Otherwise, I would normally have to wait another 2 weeks. They tested her and was worried she might have some neurological deficit that could impair her speech. So they did a nasopharyngeal scope. The good news is that her vocal cords are normal and there was no sign of any neurological deficit. That means she only needs to work on her speech therapy from now on. We managed to get an appointment for speech therapy later this month. They will start with an evaluation and proceed from the results. There's still a long way to go, but we are getting there.
I do believe that faith moves mountains. So don't give up! It may be a long way to go, but with the faith, eventually she will speak well! Keep us updated for more news!