15 month well visit

this morning we had the dude's 15 month well visit.  i know i say this everytime...but seriously...where is the time going???!!!  

here are the stats:

weight - 26 lbs 10 oz (78%)

height - 30" (17%) (woah...2 inches in 3 months!!)

head circumference - 19.5" (96%)

here's what you've been up to:

still wearing the tride and true size 5 diapers all day

typically you go to bed at 730 and are up by 645.

you still sleep with your binkie and lovey.

you're not a huge fan of red meat.  nor very many vegetables!

you've become quite attached to me and always want me to hold you.

you are AWESOME about playing by yourself.  we'll often find you reading on the floor by yourself.

you love playing across the street at the playground with the neighborhood bad boys.  you've also become the first one of the bunch to climb UP the entire twisty slide!!

you are a full time walker and working on running!!

you had two tests so far to try and figure out what's causing all these breathing issues.  both the sweat test and upper GI came back normal.  PHEW!

sweat test

this past tuesday, the dude went in for his second test that the pulmonologist had recommended.  he headed in to get a sweat test done that would check for cystic fibrosis.  the doctor didn't lead us to believe that he had CF, but she wanted to get the test done to rule things out.  

grady took the day off to take graham in and said he did great during the whole thing.  the dude doesn't normally have a problem sweating....on his head at least!  but i guess sweating on his arm is a different story.  because he didn't sweat enough at first, grady said they had to put his jacket on and make him run around a bit so they could get enough to sample!  i wish i could have seen that!  

it was a long two days waiting for the results.  i thought someone would have called me either from the testing office or the pulmonologist's office.  that would be too easy!  i couldn't wait any longer, so i called the pulmonologist to see if they had gotten the results.  of course i get voicemail!

about an hour later i get a call from the pulmonologist's office.  everything came back NORMAL!  YEAH!!!!!  i was SO relieved!  i know they say not to google medical information online, but i couldn't help it.  the one statistic i saw about life expectancy of a child with CF about broke my heart.  but now that i know the dude doesn't have that, i vow to NEVER look at a CF website ever again.  

instead, i'm even more bound and determined to figure out what's causing the dude's breathing issues.  for now we're just continuing pulmacort nebs twice a day and singulair once a day until we go back to the pulmonologist for a check-up in february.

test #1

today was test #1 of 2 for the dude.  the upper gi series.

i was pretty worried about how well today was going to go.  first up, not letting the dude eat anything after he ate lunch (11am or so).  all he could drink was water.  i had to pick him up at 1, so i was hoping he would nap for most of the time and he wouldn't have to think about eating.  yeah, no luck!  he fell asleep at school at 940 and woke up around 11.  so when i got there at 1 (while all the other kids were sleeping), graham was laying on his back playing with ms. patricia.  he looked so happy and i hated the thought of taking him away from this and subjecting him to the hospital, barium and xray machine.  i reminded myself....this is necessary.

so off we went.  we arrived at the hospital and got right into registration.  'okay ma'am, all i'm going to need now is your orders for the upper gi.'  D'OH!  yeah, it was at home in my purse because the night before i had transferred everything from my purse to my diaper bag since i knew i didn't want to be left ill prepared for any of the dude's surprises!  luckily the pulmonologist office is literally right across the street from the hospital and a nurse was kind enough to fax over an order for the test.  yeah..not feeling so great about this whole thing since our day just seems to be off.

we only had to wait in the waiting room for about 10 minutes and got brought back to a pediatric xray room...the same one we were in back in august!!  the dude was VERY interested in the IV pole and wanted to push it around everywhere.  the doctor arrived 10 minutes later and was ready to start.  no turning back now!!

the nurse had mixed a bottle for graham, half and half with milk and barium.  i was worried the dude wasn't going to drink from the bottle since he hasn't in so long, and also because of the taste of the barium.  NOPE!  i think he was so thirsty and hungry he would've eaten anything at that point.  we laid him down on the xray table, laid him on his side and on his back while the doctor watched the path of the barium through the screen.  i had to hold graham's shoulders and squeeze the bottle for an even flow, so it was cool to watch the screen and see exactly how the dude was digesting everything.

RESULTS:

everything looked as it should be.  the only thing the doctor noticed was slight reflux, which could be contributing to the dude's wheezing and coughing, but it wasn't significant enough that it would be the sole cause.

NEXT STEPS:

the hospital will send the results to the pulmonologist and we'll go over them when we go to our next check-up on february 3rd.  we also have one more test to get done before then, the sweat test.  that one will be on january 10th in the morning.  the results for that should be pretty quick as well, so we'll definitely keep everyone posted.

THANK YOU...

for everyone's thoughts and well wishes.  they really do help us stay positive through everything.  luckily there are no needles involved in any of these tests, so it makes things much easier!

we <3 all of you!

the word on the street is....

pulmonology!

yup, we had our first pulmonologist appointment today and everything went great.  the dude still wasn't sounding great, so we were happy the doctor got to see him in action.  the first thing they did when we got there was listen to his chest, give him a duo neb (mixture of two medicines, but i forgot which two!) and then come back and listen to him again.  the medicine definitely helped, but it didn't clear much up.  he still sounded pretty snarfely in there.  

after the neb we sat and talked with the doctor for awhile to give her the history of our dude and his breathing trials and tribulations (i won't go into that again since it's all documented in this here blog!).  what was strange to think about though, was the fact that this has been going on since he was about 5 months old.  that's EIGHT MONTHS we've been dealing with this!!!  the sad part, it's kind of become a normal for us now.  i remember being so worried about doing nebulizers, will he stop breathing at night, etc.  and now we're pros at this!  i honestly think if we've gotten through all of this so far, i'm not sure what we can't get through!

  i think everyone was in agreement though that the alubuterol (fast acting attack medicine) wasn't really helping, that maybe we need to try something new.  we should still keep giving him the pulmacort (inhaled steroid) though since it does prevent the episodes from being horrible.  soooooooooooo....we are now going to start giving the dude singulair which helps treat allergies and asthma.  we're all crossing our fingers that this new medicine will help!

finally, in order to rule things out so we can figure out what's causing all the dude's breathing troubles, the doctor has asked us to get two tests done.

1 - an upper gi series: a radiological test used to visualize the structures of the upper digestive system (the esophagus, stomach and duodenum).  for the dude, they'll actually be looking at the trachea and seeing if anything is pressing up against or blocking it.  which could be causing him to not breath as he should be.

2 - sweat test: this test measures the amount of salt chemicals (sodium and chloride) in sweat and is used to diagnose cystic fibrosis (CF).  during my pregnancy the CF test came back negative, but again, just to rule everything out we're going to have this test done.  the doctor reassured us that she really doesn't think the dude has CF because most patients diagnosed don't gain weight as well as....ahem...well, as well as the dude seems to be gaining weight!!  25 1/2 pounds currently!!!  

so those are the updates.  we're going to try and schedule the tests as soon as we can, so that i don't have to stress myself out about waiting for the results.  we'll also be going back to the doctors office next wednesday for a follow-up.  until then!

wheezie

over the weekend the dude started getting a little snarfely.  we didn't think too much of it though since there were no yellow snots, fever, etc.  looked like a regular little cold.  not much the doctor could really do.  all we could do was continue the pulmacort treatments every morning and night like we've been doing for months.  and to try and prevent a trip to the doctors office we started giving him albuterol three times a day as well.

unfortunately, when i picked the dude up from school today, he didn't sound any better and that's after two days or so of being on pulmacort and albuterol.  mwrrrrrr!!  : (  i don't like to mess around with his breathing, so i called the doctor to see if they wanted us to come in to get him checked out.  YUP!  7pm here we come!

we walk back to our room and even the nurse was like...hmmm, he doesn't sound good.  never like hearing that!  i knew it was kind of bad though.  like the nurse said, you could hear him wheezing from across the room.  doctor fernandez walks in (who has seen graham a couple times before).....'mr. graham!!!  i don't like the sounds of this!!!'

we know the drill though....listen to his chest, give him a neb treatment, then doc comes back and listens again.  i had a bad feeling we were going to see the ER at inova that night.  graham proceeds to scream the entire neb treatment (which is totally unlike him), the doctor comes back and listens to him and still isn't completely happy with how he sounds.  

we had three options:

1 - start oral steroids in addition to pulmacort and albuterol

2 - get a steroid shot and see if that kicks in quickly

3 - go to the ER

it was kind of a no brainer for us.  #2!!  the dude didn't like it, but we knew it would probably be our best option seeing as we didn't feel like being admitted to the hospital!  so we'll see how it goes!  cross your fingers!

nine month stats

OMG!!! the little dude is turning into a BIG dude!!

weight: 22 lbs. 7 oz.  (77%)

height: 27.25" (15%)

head circumference: 19.25" (100%!!!!)

doctor said he looked great though.  he was impressed with his 'moving' (ie, crawling, sitting, standing up, walking, etc), and thought it was great that he had no anxiety towards him whatsoever.  he did have a little snarfle in his nose and chest though, so we're doing the neb for the next several days to try and take care of that, and we're also giving him benadryl in the morning and evening to see if that will help him clear up in the nose department.

the dude's been congested pretty much ever since birth, so the doctor isn't sure if maybe it's just allergies.  so we're going to give the benadryl a try for awhile and if we think it's making a difference, we might need to see an allergist later on.  uncle tim...sound familiar!!  :)

crazy panic mom mode

today was the first time i entered the 'crazy panicked mom' mode! here's how the day went.

6am - graham wakes up and is a little congested, but other than that...normal.

7am - get the dude changed for school. noticed he's got some good 'candles' going, so i suction out his nose.

8am - drop off at school and he's as happy as can be playing in the padded ring thing they have in his room.

12:50pm - i get a call from one of the teachers at school: "we wanted to call to see if you were aware of graham's congestion." me: "yes. he was somewhat stuffed up this morning, why?" school: "well it's gotten pretty bad, to the point where he can't fall asleep. and then when he does fall asleep he seems to be having a hard time breathing. we think you might want to come pick him up and take him to the emergency room."

FREAK OUT in 5.....4.....3....2.....

i try to remain as calm as possible and tell them we didn't see that at all last night or this morning and that i would get there as soon as possible.

12:55pm - call dr's and get an appointment ASAP.

1:25pm - i get to school and he indeed is breathing REALLY fast and hard. all the teachers were worried. never a good sign!

1:35pm - worst car ride yet with the dude. he was crying the whole way there, but i think that was the only way he was able to breath. he would start coughing and i think it hurt him, so he would cry more and the cycle continued.

1:40pm - probably about 5 seconds away from parking in the drs office parking lot is when the real crazy panicked mom came out! i had been watching the dude in the backseat mirror the entire way to the doctors, thinking he may be getting worse. then at 1:40, with the drs office building in sight, he all of a sudden turns beet red and stops breathing!! FREAK OUT! then, not 2 seconds later (not to be graphic, but...) he projectile vomits what looks to be everything in his little tummy. and this doesn't happen once, but twice! FREAK OUT! finally, what seemed to be 100 miles away (but was only about 200 feet) i get to a parking spot. i honestly don't know how i didn't hit someone over those 200 feet. i was freaking out so bad i was probably going 20 miles an hour through the parking lot. oops, but can you blame me?! i was crazy panicked mom! i JUMP out of the car and sprint to the other side. i completely ignore all the vomit that is all over the poor dude and grab him out of his car seat. amazingly i remembered to grab my purse and i ran into the front door.

"hi, i have an appointment at 1:50, but someone needs to help me now!"

1:41pm - the nurse takes me back to a room and they immediately start asking me all sorts of questions. i knew something was wrong with the dude since he was, what i call, a limp noodle. he was just laying there in my arms and there was nothing i could do for him. we undress him, since he's disgustingly covered in his own vomit and the nurses notice that his breathing is retracted. another FREAK OUT!

1:50pm - the nurse walks over to the room across the hall: "excuse me dr. bill. i hate to interrupt, but you really need to come check this little guy out." FREAK OUT!

1:55pm - dr. bill: "oh my goodness graham. what are you doing to your poor mom?!" he takes a quick look and immediately has the nurses get a neb treatment set up for him. he'll be back in 10mins.

2:20pm - neb treatment is done, dr bill takes another look at him and the dude is back to normal!!!

2:35pm - walk out of the with a diaper clad baby (since i was not putting those clothes back on him) and drive home.

O-M-G!!!!

i was so glad to be home and able to just cuddle with the little dude. he snoozed on me for a good hour and a half and then we ventured out to get his medicine.

he's on albuterol neb treatments every 4-6 hours, steriod neb treatments twice a day (we can mix it with the albuterol thankfully!) and prednisone orally twice a day. we did our first combined treatment at 630 and it really seemed to help. thankfully the little guy ate his dinner with no problem, took his bottle at the regular time and has been snoozing in his crib since about 745 or so. we're not sure if we're going to scoop him up and let him sleep with us so we can hear him better, or if we'll just turn the monitor on REALLY loud, so we can hear everything.

i think he's on the mend and hopefully we'll get a cleaner bill of health when we go for our follow-up visit on saturday morning. i'll keep everyone posted!

cleared!

6 weeks!!! OMG!

so i'm going to have a post about me this time!

this morning i had my 6 week postpartum check-up and everything looked great! YEAH! my incision is healing VERY well and the best part....i'm only 3 pounds, yes i said THREE POUNDS, away from my pre-pregnancy weight!! YAHOO!! so that means i have lost 27 pounds in a little over 6 weeks! even my doctor was impressed and gave me the compliment "most mom's aren't able to get the weight off that quick. good job!" :)

i was convinced i was going to gain some of the weight back over the holidays, yet i actually LOST weight over thanksgiving. craziness! so we'll see how christmas goes. i know there's going to be lots of food and sweets that week!!

teary eyed

we don't like seeing this face (but please note the peace sign the little dude is throwing)!



and normally when you get this face you also get tears. well we got tears...but only from the left eye and they were yellow and gunky. :( i was a little concerned, but was proud of myself for not freaking out. i calmly called the doctors office and told them what was wrong. to my surprise the pediatrician office is open until 8pm!! so we got the last 7:45pm appointment.

after a careful evaluation of his little eye, the doctor said graham has a very clogged tear duct. apparently it's a normal thing for newborns to get and they usually just have the parents massage the tear duct twice a day. but since graham had a little worse case than most, we were prescribed erythomycin (the same stuff they put on newborns eyes once their born) to put on his eye 3-4 times a day plus massaging his tear duct twice a day. we also try to wipe some of the gunk out of his eye with a warm washcloth...which he actually really seems to like.

on a positive note though...when they weighed graham at his visit he weighed 7lbs 10oz!!!! woo hoo!!! that's 4oz more than last week. that's all i could think about the whole way home. the every 2 hour nursing schedule is paying off!

first doctor's appointment

today we had graham's first doctors appointment with dr. bill. graham didn't like being undressed as it was kind of cold, but once we got the blanket on him he didn't seem to mind so much. he did a great job. luckily there were no shots at today's appointment since mommy probably would have had a breakdown! :)

everything went well though and we're looking forward to seeing how much he will have grown at his two week appointment on nov. 5th!

current stats:

weight - 7lbs 7oz (50% percentile)
height - 20" (60% percentile)
head circumference - 14.25" (50% percentile)