Sometimes You Get Lucky

Luck just happens a lot less when our family is involved so it was a pleasant surprise! Today Averi had an appointment for a sedated echocardiogram to follow up on her VSD repair. The echo she had 6 months ago showed two leaky valves so Dr. Hershenson scheduled for her to be sedated today so that they could get a really good look at her heart.

We completed all the initial registration and then I left Averi with the nurse while I ran Kaili down to the Sibling Clubhouse. When I returned just a few minutes later, Averi was asleep on the nurse’s shoulder. The nurse told me that if Averi stayed asleep when she laid her down, they would try to do the echo without sedation.

She slept through the whole thing!!! With a little bit of help from her thumb, a warm blanket, and a very quiet and sneaky radiologist, we didn’t have to use any medication. I was SO excited!

Not only that, the echo “looked just like a normal echo.” Both leaky valves were healed and none of the chambers were enlarged. Her heart is just like a normal heart! We were long overdue for some good news.

Nutrition:
We also made our monthly nutritionist visit today. Averi gained 4 ozs and is now 15 lbs 3 ozs…apparently not heavy enough. She is finally at a point that I think looks healthy and I have yet to be concerned about her lack of weight gain.

I was actually a little worried about today’s visit because Francis, our OT, told me that nutrition is quick to call ‘failure to thrive,’ even when they know that a child is refusing to eat.

It didn’t get to that point, but they did tell me to start putting olive oil in her food to add extra calories. Seriously? That’s what I did for Kaili because she was below the growth charts, not sitting right in the middle of it.

She also told me to add baby food meats, which have more calories, and start giving her adult juice to help with her constipation. We decreased her 8 hour continuous feed at night to 6 hours, so that there will be a longer stretch of time before breakfast, and added that milk to her daytime feeds, so that her stomach will stretch and shrink even more between meals.

Hopefully we are taking the right steps toward getting rid of the G-tube. I’m always a little hesitant because she is always telling me that “there is no right way to do it.” As long as she eventually eats without a tube, I’ll be happy. :)