Monday, January 30, 2012

Orange County

Today we made a trip to Children's Hospital Orange County, otherwise known as CHOC. We met with their GI doctor who heads up a very good feeding clinic. Mia has been doing well eating recently, but she's still not gaining weight...she's at almost 28 pounds which is where she was in August when I stopped the pediasure and cream. So, we just were hoping for some new insight and suggestions. We felt like it was worthwhile to have a fresh pair of eyes look at her and her history.

First off, he told us that we've done an amazing job getting her to where she is now...we know that is completely because of God and we are grateful that He has healed her to where she is now.

Second, he told us that for her height, she is on the skinny end of the scale, but not malnourished in any way and that yes, she is skinny, and could stand to gain a few more pounds, but she's actually within the realm of ok. That was encouraging for us to here.

Then he told us how sometimes the anti seizure medicine you are on, like keppra, can decrease appetite. Obviously the benefits of the medicine far outweigh the potential side effect of a decreased appetite, but that was interesting to know and realize might potentially be contributing to her lack of appetite.

He indicated that her bowel issues and slower emptying stomach might also be contributing along with a possibility that neurologically, she doesn't recognize the need to eat, etc.

His thought was to put her on some medicine to increase her appetite, try it out for 4-6 weeks and see if it makes any difference. There are two possibilities for this and so we'll be trying one out here over the next couple of weeks and if that doesn't work we'll try the other one.

He did feel like we should try to find a feeding therapist locally...ha. That it could be beneficial for her to see one just to rule out anything major that we might be missing, so we are going to look into that and see what we can find for her.

Needless to say, it was a long trip, but an encouraging trip. And we do praise God for how far our little one has come, she is our miracle.

1 comment:

Corey said...

She truly is a little miracle. And you all give such encouragement to us. Not only in how far Mia has come, but also the manner in which you two have handled this journey. You have brought Glory to God with your example and we strive to do the same through our journey with Noah.