Star Patient

If there were ever a perfect doctors appointment, I believe Eli had one on Friday. We had an early morning appointment with Dr. Husayni (pediatric cardiologist) and I was sure it would be a long one due to his recent stent placement. He came in and immediately was impressed with how well Eli looked and how much bigger he is within a months time. Both Dr. Husayni and his nurse looked over him and said things sound and look great. They were happy with the results from the recent cathertization. 

So Sleepy!

 Eli weighed in at 14.25 lbs (he was 12.36lbs on January 6th) and is 24.5inches long. They want us to do mostly bottle feeds and leave the gtube use for medicine and any feeding Eli doesn't want to do by bottle. The bottle rejection happens every once in awhile but typically he loves his bottle. We should also relax on the strict eating schedule and let the hunger kick in. He needs to learn when he is hungry rather than knowing he gets fed at certain times. 

We also got great changes to his medications. Prior to his appointment he was on a few different medications:

 Amiodarone to control heart rhythms from his July hospitalization

 Lasix to keep off excessive fluid, hard for heart babies to handle

 Lansoprazole  "prevacid"for acid reflux

 Sildenafil "viagra" to help blood flow easier through compressed artery. 

Aspirin acts a blood thinner so body doesn't reject the stents

 Now he is just on Amiodarone probably until next month's appointment, lasix until this coming Friday, and half of a baby aspirin. The doctor said that when he comes back for his check up in four months he may be completely off of medicine. Talk about a miracle! It makes me very proud that he continues to do so well. 

As we were leaving, the speech therapist caught us and asked us to spend a few minutes with her so she could evaluate Eli again. She was happy with Eli as well, and said he made nice improvements since December. His neck was favoring a certain side previously and they gave us exercises to do to help stretch him. We no longer see that happening, they were worried about muscle forming awkwardly. 

Using his "big boy" cup

Both Dr. Husayni and the speech therapist said "Eli is one of our star patients". This was two separate conversations in different areas of the hospital so it wasn't like they were feeding off of each others comments. It makes Rafe and I very proud and I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa as well.