P = M V

Yesterday, Jackson had a wild and crazy day of reflux. He even had refluxed milk come out of his mouth once.. yuck! I felt so bad for him! They did take off his cannula in the morning, but it had to go back on around 11am due to some really bad reflux episodes. His doctor decided to put him on reflux medicine (prevacid) and when I just spoke to his night nurse, she said that the meds seemed to be working well! His doctor said she is planning to take him back off his cannula on Friday.

I hate pushing him so much so many days in a row, but I think he's getting to a point that fixing these things will finally make everything turn around for him. I hope so because I hate to see my little man uncomfortable, struggling, and in pain!

On a good note, we tried out his bouncer yesterday.... and he loved it!! I'm going to post a picture later today (my camera is in the other room). He sat in his bouncer for about 3 hours looking around at his toys, sucking on his paci, and chilling out! When the doctor came to make rounds on him today she commented on how awake and alert he was! (Awww...my little man is getting so big and grown up!)

The doctors and nutritionist decided to increase Jackson's calories again in his feeds because of the added thickener in his milk. The thickener doesn't have any calories or nutritional value, so he will require more calories because the volume is getting displaced by the thickener. (i.e. he gets 45 cc per feed. Now for every 30 cc breastmilk he gets, 5 cc is thickener. So he's losing 5 cc of nutritional value.) They are also going to add protein to the milk to help him be higher on the weight gain curve. They are also adding 2 cc thickener to his tube feedings to help his reflux.

Jackson also had a really bad stomach ache yesterday. He had terrible dirty diapers... yuck! I was worried about it because there was so much and it was so runny. PT/OT was there when I was changing a diaper and she said it was probably caused by the solution they used in the swallow study yesterday. Hopefully, it should be gone today because I don't want him to get dehydrated!

I also went back to my endocrinologist yesterday morning. He said that my blood work came back and I have "moderately severe hyperthyroidism" that wasn't postpartum hyperthyroidism. This means that I will require a medicine regime to help control it and that I have had it for awhile...which means that I had thyroid issues during the pregnancy! I spoke to Jackson's doctor and she said that it didn't hurt Jackson and this his thyroid numbers (his TSH) have all come back normal every time. There is research to suggest, however, that hyperthyroidism can negatively affect female fertility. I have another appointment next Tuesday. From the sounds of things, the next 6 months to a year will involve lots of doctors visits with lots of blood work because the medicine will constantly have to be adjusted to balance my hormones. Great... another six months to a year of visits to Atlanta.

Current Stats:
Weight: 5 pounds 14.6 ounces!
Respiratory: Oxygen Tank. Nasal Cannula. 1/64 liter. Tried him off nasal cannula in the am. Lots of desats earlier in the day due to reflux. Put back on cannula. Additional desats through the day. Started reflux meds. Few desats overnight (the meds are working!)
Feeds: 45 cc every three hours. 5 cc thickener in bottles. 2 cc thickener in tube feedings. 25 cc bottle at 11am (totally tired from stomach ache). Full bottle at 8pm in 25 minutes. Few desats at beginning of feed due to being over excited. Full bottle at 2am in 15 minutes. No desats!

Goals:
1. Keep on gaining weight! Lets hit 6 pounds!
2. See ENT (whenever he shows up) to access and treat vocal cords.
3. Keep on taking full bottles!
4. No desats!
5. Manage reflux.
6. Come home!!

With love,
Anna