Thanksgiving 2023
Therapies and Treatments
Moira started PT and Speech (for feeding) while still in NICU. Following our stay, we began OT (feeding) with VitalStim and PT all throughout 2022. This year, we upped our game and started some really cool non-traditional approaches that have really moved the needle with her progress. Check out all the things she is doing here with resources.
Leander ISD ECI Program
Moira began receiving services from our local ECI program (Bluebonnet Trails) in April 2023. Leander ISD, here is the Austin area, provides Moira with a TVI (teach of the visually impaired) and O&M (orientation and movement) twice a month at our home. LISD also provided an low vision evaluation with a specialist in our area, Dr. Laura Miller, who is amazing! She helped us determine that Moira needed glasses and where her blind spots are. Lori (TVI) and Alicia (O&M) have made a massive impact on not only Moira but on our whole family. They are kind, creative, bring thoughtful and engaging toys and activities and taught us so much about CVI. I couldn’t be more grateful to these two kind souls.
NeuroSolution Center of Austin
We had our first appt with the NeuroSolution Center of Austin at the end of May 2023. That first day when we came home, we saw more alertness and eye contact. Given Moira had recently been diagnosed with CVI (Cortical Vision Impairment or Cerebral Vision Impairment), this was huge to get eye contact from her. Within the first three weeks of going there twice a week for one hour a day, she was eating 100% orally (she does have a g-tube), way more vocalizations including “mmmma,” and rolling onto her belly. Since then, we continue to see additional progress with coordination improvement, better sleep quality, gut motility improvement, and CVI improvement (the fastest her TVI has ever seen - she went from a 5, middle of Phase II to a 7-8, transitioning from Phase II to Phase III in the matter of four and a half months). Please visit here to see all the equipment we use.
NAPA Center
Moira had her first three week (one hour) intensive at Napa Center Austin in April of 2023. Since then, she has completed three more intensives and started going weekly for OT and DMI therapy. In January 2024, she will have her fifth intensive and will add feeding/speech therapy to her weekly schedule.
Additional Therapies
In addition to the above, I do want to mentioned the other therapies Moira has received in the past. In the NICU, she received speech/feeding and physical therapy. Once discharged, we were connected with an outpatient therapy office where she received OT (for feeding and VitalStim) and PT for about 14 months. We were definitely hesitant at first to try VitalStim but we really do feel this helped her with strengthening the muscles in her mouth and tongue to be about to swallow better. Her initial swallow study showed that her tongue was not hitting the back of her throat during swallowing. This caused milk to pool and have potential for aspiration. She also could not swallow thin liquids so we started to thicken her milk to “nectar thick” and have since moved to “thin nectar” and slowly working our way toward “thin.” We couldn’t be more grateful to all the people who helped us in those early days get the therapy she desperately needed.