A Few Appointments to Update.

Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic:  Last week we visited the CHOC pulmonary hypertension clinic with Ryan's Cardiologist and Pulmonary Doctor.  The message of the day was WEIGHT GAIN.  So, last month at this clinic it was "Get the reflux under control."  We did that.  We switched to omeprazole and also decreased the volume of formula he was getting, and we actually noticed a HUGE improvement the very next day.  Which to me says that it was more about the volume than the meds, but I guess we'll never know.  As long as he keeps this up and continues to gain weight, we should be able to talk to GI about weaning off the meds at our next appointment.  So, since his reflux appears to be under control, his doctors were really pushing the weight gain.  We had a chest Xray done before this appointment, and you can definitely still see a lot of white haze in his lungs.  There's a noticeable improvement from his previous Xray, but there's still much more white than their should be.  The only thing that can get rid of that white is growth of new lung tissue, which comes from weight gain.  But, there's a fine line.  We don't want to pump him so full of formula and pediasure that he starts throwing up again, so we've started up with something that I'll talk about in another blog post (because it truly deserves its own) called Blenderized Diet.  I'll end this by saying that at the time of this appointment, he was still desatting to 89/90 when he would pull his prongs out at night.  They said that was evidence to show that his lungs just aren't healed yet, and that the number one push now should be for him to gain weight in a HEALTHY way.  That's all you had to say to me, doctor. ;)

General Surgeon:  Today we met with Dr. Lam who is the same general surgeon who performed the penrose drain that helped heal his bowel perforation when he was only 8 days old.  We've been meeting with him and speaking with him over the past few months because Ryan has been battling constipation issues (I should say "had been battling" as you will see in my new post about blenderized diet!) and that has caused a little abscess to develop on his poor little bum.  He's already been on 2 rounds of antibiotics to get rid of it, but now that it came back for a 3rd time, it's time for a quick and easy procedure to drain it and seal it up once and for all.  He said he would schedule us for it soon and it would be a quick outpatient procedure that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.  It will be nice to have that issue done with so we can have one less thing to constantly worry about!

Coming soon:  We have an appointment for our first hearing aid evaluation next week, which I am super excited about.  I will update you on that one as soon as possible!  Thank you for the continued love and prayers for our little guy!