Dr. Appt Update

Today Alyson had 2 Dr's appointments....one was with her pediatrician and the other with her cardiologist. In my defense we scheduled the one with her pediatrician right before her surgery and the nurse at PCMC said we should probably keep both appointments. So this morning we got up and went to see her pediatrician for her 6 month appointment/shots. Thank goodness Olivia had a sleepover with Tara at my mom's last night or we would not have made the appointment on time. Alyson now weighs 13 lbs 11 oz!!! Still sounds little I'm sure but she is gaining weight so much faster now after the surgery. She also got approved for a 6th RSV shot which I wasn't sure was going to happen. Normally kids only get 5 approved through insurance but she had her 5th shot sooner than usual because of her surgery and being on the heart/lung machine. So she will be protected a little longer (until the middle of May). On a side note...she has been pooped today after the shots. She has been sleeping since 7:00ish tonight and hasn't really seemed to want to wake up.

So after the first appointment (we got out around 9:45am) we had hurry up and drive to SLC because our appointment there was at 11:00am!!! The appointment took longer than I anticipated so needless to say we were 20 minutes late getting to the SLC appointment. Oh well, better to be late and get there in one piece. Her cardiologist couldn't be happier with how she looks. Her heart and lungs look good from the x-ray, her weight gain is good, and her EKG looks good if not better than last time. The only thing that is happening that he is concerned about and I have failed to blog about recently is she is **NOT EATING! Not one drop! He said for us to keep working with her on the feeding and to have our pediatrician make us an appointment with the GI clinic to see if she is a candidate now for a G-tube. It may take a while for us to get in to see them so hopefully she will start to eat some before then so we can cancel. I have mixed feelings right now about all of this but I know whatever is meant to be will happen and we will find a way to manage...because really that's all we can do. Even though I am okay about the feeding issue most of the time I started to cry a little while the cardiologist was talking about it with us. It is very frustrating to me as I wish I knew what to do to help her. I'm just happy though she is doing so well health wise right now and we'll also continue working on helping her to sit up by herself.

**A few weeks ago we started to transition her to another formula based on a dietitian's recommendation and I think it made her stomach very upset....therefore she no longer wants to eat! A dietitian said if the stomach doesn't feel good, they won't want to eat. Well that's reassuring! We were doing so good and have taken such a dramatic step (like 10 steps) back...ugh! There could be a number of things that contributed to her not eating.

1. The formula change making her stomach not feel well so she doesn't want to eat now.
2. Prevacid was normally a 2 week medication but the pharmacist added a preservative to make it last a month. He mentioned that it could lose potency after the 2 weeks and may not do as good for the child so she could be having reflux issues again which isn't helping the situation. We'll be going back to having it filled every 2 weeks.
3. I think the week of Frank's b-day I tried to feed her carrots and I had to help her open her mouth by pinching her cheeks to get the spoon in. She did not appreciate that at all and started to gag! It makes me wonder if this is another part of the puzzle for her not eating.

I really am okay with all of this. The past few days though have been a little hard for me as I feel so helpless in what I need to do to help her to eat. I feel okay with her having a G-tube put in but I would prefer her to not have one. If she did end up needing one, that would be her 5th surgery! Frank and I were talking today and no matter what we have to go through with her, she is 100% worth it!