Botox!

Yep; you read correctly.

Last week, we had Evs in for a Botox treatment. No, not to treat any premature wrinkles - this was to treat her spasticity. While injecting a neurotoxin into your 2-year-old isn't really high on anyone's list of fun stuff to do around here - it has helped many in this regard, and is otherwise proven safe enough (if not by those that do it cosmetically).

The basic idea is this: The Botox is injected into the "problem" muscles; that is to say, the ones that Evs often has "locked" due to a spastic episode. For her, this includes her pectorals (leading to pulling forward/hunching over), her thighs (leading to locked knees), her calfs (leading to tight ankles), her elbows... etc. Over a week or two, the Botox starts blocking the release of certain neurotransmitters that aid in muscle contraction - rendering her muscles able to contract less; thus hopefully helping with the spasticity.

We'll have to "play it by ear" and see how it goes ('cuz that's just how we have to roll around here) - but ideally, it should help her spasticity, for a period of 3-4 months.

At any rate, we had that done last week, and have definitely seen some improvements to her tone. Evs has been working on some teeth between then and now, which typically causes her tone to increase (as well as increased seizures, but so far, we've avoided any ER episodes) - but we're hopeful that this is an overall "good thing" for her - so far, it seems to be.

In other, "more fun" news - Evelyn has also been making great use of a communication device and communication switches. I'm going to save more on that for a separate post - but we're really excited about the possibilities with being able to help her tell us about her copious - and strong - opinions. ;-)

At any rate - that's the latest!