So much going on…Yesterday I spent almost the whole day at Children’s Hospital. Ella had a helmet fitting appointment, then she had her blood drawn and then she had 2 opthamology appointments. The sore at the base of her scalp was pretty nasty looking by the time we saw the ortontist (sp?). He thought the wound looked infected. I didn’t. It just needed to dry out. He cut out the helmet padding so that it wouldn’t rub there. I’m not convinced he took out enough. We put the helmet on last night and her sore looked a bit oozy again this afternoon. We are keeping it off a bit more. When they drew Ella’s blood, needing one poke in each arm, she sure belted out the wailing. That is a welcome sign and much more normal in my eyes than the apathy which she has shown before. At the vision testing she performed marvelously. At first the doctor, Dr. Mayer, thought she had a field cut. Then after about 45 minutes of seeing Ella respond to all sorts of lights, shapes, toys, cards, stripes, etc. she determined that she “suspects” that Ella doesn’t have a field cut. Ella was a real trooper in any case. She looked every which way and really proved herself! To her Mom anyway. Then we went on to the opthamologist. This is the second time we’ve had such a nerve wracking appointment. I’d hate to be in those doctors’ shoes. Hours of looking through various lenses into the evasive gaze of an infant, lining up lights and lenses over and over again until???? Well, I was losing patients with the system and so was Ella. She got very tired and fussy. I hinted to the doctor in a mildly assertive tone that this was enough and he ran out to bring one of his supervisors. Upon their return, Ella was dressed in her coat, asleep in her carriage and ready to go home. The older doctor (didn’t catch his name) was able to re-examine her while she slept. Apparently, they confirmed some kind of abnormality in her left eye. They couldn’t figure out how that would be connected to her condition or what it was. Could this be new problem? They suggested a follow up appointment in April. Back at home, today, we have two new problems. Ella has a worsening rash on her legs around the edges of her diaper. It looks more like an allergic reaction than diaper rash. It is actually not under the diaper but more on the sides, on her thighs. The other thing is that she has a fatty lump on the back of her scalp. I noticed that before but it now seems to have grown larger. I think we need to go to Dr. Becker’s tomorrow for her to take a look. Uhhh…. what a slew of problems.