We’ll I’m overdue in writing some blogs and I do have a good amount to report. First Avery had a doctor’s visit at Wills Eye Institute in Philly on January 22. Her appointment was at 11:00 so we left at 7:00 a.m., which was way better than having to leave at the 4:00 a.m. hour to make her 6:00 a.m. appointment in Baltimore a few months earlier. Anyway, Avery is just awesome. Justin took her out of her crib earlier than normal so she wasn’t quite ready to get up…which was fine actually because we wanted her to fall back asleep in the car which she did within just a few short minutes and she slept most the ride to Philly. At the doctor’s office, she found her way to the play room and made herself right at home. There were other kids in the playroom and Avery was not shy about going up to them. She really is such a free spirit! With regards to the actual examination, Avery did awesome! It makes me happy and sad at the time, although mostly happy. No kid Avery’s age should be so used to being examined by a doctor, but the truth is she is used to it and tolerates it so well.
Overall, the outcome was good. Dr. Levin confirmed that the ERG report was essentially normal and the minor abnormalities were a technical glitch of the report. So Avery has no retinal or cone rod dystrophy! Dr. Levin was very pleased with the progress that he saw from exactly one year prior. Similar to Dr. Repka, he felt that Avery’s nystagmus was a result of the cataracts and smaller eyes and optic nerves but didn’t feel it was anything further than that. He basically said unless her development falls behind schedule he doesn’t want to see us anymore!
After the appointment, we went to the same French café that we had gone a year prior. Last year when we went we felt the food wasn’t that good and it was overpriced. Yet we found ourselves back at the same place. The temperature wasn’t even out of the teens and it was windy so we didn’t want to venture very far with Avery. We decided to give it another try but decided we would order something different than last year. I am happy to report that the meal was much better than last year, although still not great and definitely still overpriced. If we do have to back to Wills again, I want to visit this place again afterwards since now it is just part of the routine.
After our tummies were full we loaded up the car and headed back home. Avery was exhausted and fell asleep for a little more than two hours. When we were about 45 minutes from home she started stirring and woke up. Justin and I were talking about how I was going to climb into the backseat to sit with her when all of a sudden we heard what sounded like Avery had choked. I said Avery “are you okay?” Not that I expected a response but I didn’t get one. As I was crawling back I could start to smell the vomit. Poor little thing had thrown up in her car seat! It smelled like sour milk…it was so gross. It didn’t even phase her. Avery’s normal meal schedule had been off that day due to travel so she had more milk than normal. On top of that I gave her yogurt for breakfast since it was easy to transport. Poor little thing had too much dairy! Justin from the front seat thought he was going to vomit from the smell. Luckily we were only about a half hour from home by this time. Once she was home she was happy to be able to run around in familiar territory and happy to see Emerson. Emerson was happy to see Avery too. Emerson definitely knows when Avery isn’t around and misses her in the way that 18 months old miss their siblings:)