Doctor Updates

Sweet Pea made the trip to Children's Hospital again today and visited her GI & ENT.  Spending 3 hours in waiting rooms and exam rooms will test her patience on a good day, and today was not a good day.  She survived though and we made it through both appointments.

GI: We sat in the exam room for 70 minutes before the doctor came in.  Yes, I'm annoyed!  Moving on...The reports from the radiologist and OT of our swallow study still weren't complete so I tried to share what I knew...which wasn't much.  The doctor was concerned that she was aspirating and wants us to follow the recommendations we were given.  Hopefully the report will be available soon and it will give us more information.  Until then we are continuing to use the Simply Thick honey for all formula and liquids and we are going to be adding baby cereal to any purees that are too runny.  He wasn't concerned that she is still spitting up typically between 2-4 times a day sometimes much more.  It's frustrating, but I'm hoping he knows what he is doing and that we aren't overlooking something.  He does want us to do another test...this one is the stomach emptying study which tracks digestion for an hour to see how fast (or in Sweet Pea's case...slow) her stomach works.  Since she spits up hours after eating, this is a concern.  To end on a good note, he is happy that her weight gain is ok...not great, but not bad.

ENT: This appointment was much better as he is normally very timely and he was this time.  Both her ear tubes are still in good position and don't look like they are close to coming out.  This is great news since we were told that they could be out in less than 3 months.  We are at the 3 month mark and still looking good!  We talked about getting a sleep study and he is going to put in the referral for us.  He wasn't really recommending we get the study though because he doesn't think there is much to do even if she is having apnea issues.  Let me try to explain it as he did...there are two kinds of sleep apnea...obstructive and central.  Obstructive is just as it sounds...something is physically obstructing the breathing.  Central has to do with the brain and sending proper signals out for proper breathing.  The most common "solution" for apnea is to wear a nasal cannula that blows oxygen into your nose.  Most kids rip those out immediately and so they don't do any good.  Daddy & I believe that it is better to at least know what we are dealing with so that we can make informed decisions.  If she does have sleep apnea, I want to know how bad and then determine what we need to try to do.  Hopefully she won't have it and this will all be a moot point, but time will tell.  The wait for the sleep study could be 3 months so I'll keep you posted when we actually get it scheduled.  We go back to the ENT in 3 months again.

To end this post on a high note...Sweet Pea displayed a new trick today.  You know those toys that are a bucket and they have a lid that has different shape cutouts in it?  We have an older one that only has 3 cutouts and I thought I would try it out with Sweet Pea and see what she would do.  I covered up two of the holes with my hand so that she only had one choice and she picked right up on it!  The circles and triangles went in quite easily, but the squares proved to be a bit more difficult because they almost fit sideways, but not quite so that kept throwing her off.  She is far from good at this, but it's a start!  We transferred this new skill to her milk carton toy that has a slit in the top for the cookies to go into and she did that too!  We've just left the lid off figuring that she wasn't able to do this...who knew?!?!  I will have to ask daycare if this is something that they have been working on with her.