Dr. Kreiger's

OK, so Josie is never dull and is certainly never at a loss for words as most of you know. We had our appointment with Dr. Kreiger, her neurosurgeon at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, today. I'll get to the actual medical part of it in a minute but I will give you the very funny Josie part first. After her exam and review of the MRI he asks her to show him her walking from Michigan. So she gets on her canes and walks across the exam room towards the door. He could hardly believe his eyes. She reached the door and turned around to see him just as he begins to dictate his notes to her 5 other doctors at CHLA. Josie begins to walk back to him and he says into the recorder, "Josie is walking to me with crutches" and of course Josie quickly corrects him and makes him say they are canes. She keeps walking, he keeps recording and all through the dictation he will pause and say, "Josie is walking with canes". He said it 4 times including the crutches correction. It was like total disbelief and pure excitement that she could do this. It was great to get his reaction seeing he knows more about the brain and the reconnection in order to function than most people. It will be funny for the other doctors to receive these notes.

As for the medical part, he is thrilled with how the brain looks. He feels the size has stopped growing and we are safe in that regard to add on her skull when Mark Urata is ready. It will be at least a year and a half from now because she needs to complete this intense walking journey before we set her back with major surgery. When I asked about the shunt he said it all looked great. I have had my doubts about it even working. He had a great response saying it is either not working and since there is no fluid build up she is draining on her own or that it is working perfectly. Either way she is perfect. We will MRI in a year unless something arises unexpectedly.

Before Dr. Kreiger's, we got to go see the PCY 6th grade school performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Josie was excited to see some of her friends. She was most excited to see her friend Ben Dickie play the role of Mike. She thought he was hilarious. Good job Ben, we loved watching you!!

That's it for now. Tomorrow we get to do some training with her new school aide, Sharie. Josie can't wait so she can go back to school in January. Good night, Jenny and Josie