More Eye Info, MRI update and walking

Shelby officially now has no more corneal abrasion!!! She was seen on Tuesday, and all that's left are a few spots which are nothing more than a severe case of dry eye, but that can be from the steroids. She gets the erythromyacin in her eye 4 times a day now, and she's really good about letting me know if her eye hurts so that I can put more in for her. She grabs the ointment, or points to her eye and says 'eye'. She is going back in next Tuesday for Dr. Goie to check things out, and then will get her permanent stitch in on Thursday (Feb 7th). This is supposed to be just in the corner of her eye and will help her blink fully. She's getting her eye much more closed, but it's still not quite far enough to prevent the dryness, so this stitch will help her out in that department. We're going to wait until that exam before getting her glasses since there's been so much improvement. Her eye is really clear now, so clear you can actually see her eye ball which you couldn't even two weeks ago. We're hoping that means she can see more now, but Dr. Goie will be able to tell us more about how she's seeing after her exam Thursday. UPDATE--- After her visit with Dr. Goie it was decided that she's doing so well that the stitch is not needed after all, unless she does something to damage her eye, so we're on a wait and see with that, but she's doing REALLY well with it.
Now, for the really GREAT news!! She had her first post radiation MRI yesterday (on the 31rst), and while we don't have the 'official' results yet, Dr. McDonough was able to tell us today that there is NO NEW CANCER RE-GROWTH!!!!! There are a few abrasions from the resection surgeries, but that's typical four months post-op, so they are not worried about that at all. The swelling also appears to be going down, but we can't start weaning her off of the steroids until it's read further and closer. So, some time after Wednesday next week, we can call in for an update on the read to find out how much we can go down on the 'roids! She will get a scan every three months this first year, and then fewer each year after that. Our next appointment is on the 21rst, so we'll have even more information then.
Out little Miss Shelby had PT this morning (she goes twice a week) and did really well. She's working on going up and down stairs, using both hands at the same time, walking holding on with only one hand and her balance (this is off mostly because of her eye). She did really well this morning, but the most exciting thing was after we left PT and went to Mommy's PT appointment. She usually gets down on the floor and plays with a ball while we're there, but today when I got her out of the stroller, she was asking for the ball which was about 5 feet away and I told her to go get it if she wanted it (she hears this a lot - no babying her, she's got to work to get things), and she just took off WALKING to the ball. She went the whole 5 feet, all by herself, holding on to NOTHING!!! She's taken a few halting steps before, but only 1 or 2 at a time, so this is a big improvement. She was fitted for her AFO (ankle brace) yesterday, so we'll be getting that on the 13th. This will keep her much more stable and keep her knee from hyper extending, which will make her want to walk even more!!
Last but not least, her lip is getting better. You can see in her new welcome photo (the one with the 'Warning' T-shirt), she's got a pacifier in her mouth. We really don't like them, especially in kids as old as her, but it has kept her from chewing on her lip. She keeps it tucked in to the side of her mouth and chews away on that, instead of her lip. The sore is less than 1/2 way across her bottom lip now and not nearly as red. Hopefully by next week, it will be completely gone. We talked to her doctors about it yesterday and they were OK with it and couldn't think of anything else to do to keep her away from herself. At least we're moving out of her body with her chewing and picking. She started out chewing the inside of her mouth, then went on to picking at her eye, then to her lip....so in the big picture, a paci is NOTHING!! Apparently this is a common thing with these kids, they have a compulsion to pick, chew or just basically mess with something, anything. It might go away with the steroids, or maybe not. It's just another wait and see.