Doc update

Sorry for the delay in posting a post-doc update. I guess you could say that no news is good news whenever we go to Children's Mercy! It was a good visit overall. I love Dr. Hartvingsen, and not only because she talks as rapid-fire as I do. Like Dr. Murphy (our Lawrence doc), she's not an alarmist when it comes to any issues we bring up. She's happy to hand out the facts and numbers, but it's not worst-case scenario first with her. Anyway, Adele checked out just fine and is just under 14 pounds and 24 inches. Developmentally everything seems to be on track, at least there's nothing that's making them worried thus far. Adele is doing most of what a "normal" 2.5 month old should do and a few things beyond that. She almost rolled from her back to her tummy on the exam table! She still has her hands clenched in a fist a lot of the time (when she's not relaxed), so we're going to work on encouraging her to open those up, but I don't think that's a HUGE deal. Overall, things look good!

I did manage to speak to her about everything on the list. Here's a recap:

• Iron--She's off the iron for now. They took a blood draw (and baby didn't even flinch when they poked her heel!) to check her hemoglobin and will let us know ONLY if she needs to go back on.
  

• Solids--Looks like she'll start around her adjusted 6-month age, so 9 months actual. No one is in a particular hurry to start, especially considering her senstive tummy issues.


• Swallow study--She is on thickener until she gets another swallow study, which usually aren't given until 6 months after the last one. Since that one was right before her hospital discharge, we have another 3 months or so before they'd even bother with a new one. Our next CMH appt isn't until January, so the doc suggested we plan a feeding around her appt and maybe they can get an OT up to feed her and see how things are checking out. Although by then she'll be ready to start solids and may not need as much formula anyway. Oh well...it's status quo for now.


• Fireplace--Yes, the fireplace is okay to use. Woo!


• Reflux/Prevacid--The doc did increase her dose from 1 ml to 1.7 ml. I think it's helping a little bit!


• Speaking of food refusal--No magic answer to this problem, unfortunately. She ruled out an ear infection and a few other things and said she couldn't really come up with anything to explain it. As she put it, the bad news is she doesn't have an answer, but the good news is she's not concerned about it at all. I, on the other hand, am becoming increasingly concerned because things have not improved. We're almost a full month into her eating half (at the most) of what she was eating before, and that's just not good. I know the docs keep saying her weight is fine, but at some point it WON'T be fine and I'd rather fix the problem now and not wait until it gets so bad that she's losing. I have an appt for next week to see our doctor here, but I also left a message with the nurse to find out if they want us in sooner. They're out of the office today (Tuesday) so I likely won't hear back until tomorrow. I'm about ready to ask to see a specialist of some sort. Not that I don't trust Dr. Murphy, but she can't know everything about everything and maybe a GI specialist would be able to pinpoint a cause for her problem.
  


• Teething--There's no answer to the teething question either. Teething age is mostly genetic depending on when Steve and I each started teething. It can happen anywhere from 6-12 months, sounds like.

She finally got her Synagis (RSV) shot last Friday, which was a relief. Only 5 more to go... November will be a particularly heinous month for her since she'll need to get 4 or 5 shots that month. Poor kid.

Otherwise, we're all doing fine. Adele seems happy and "normal" aside from the eating issue, and hopefully we'll figure that problem out soon. We'll keep you posted!