Hana's Heart

Fever

Posted on June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 by katmeander

My friend Erin has been here the past week. It has really been amazing to have her here. In some ways it feels busier when someone is here staying and helping and that’s because I am trying to do more than I normally would do. But I am very grateful for the support so that I can catch up on other things like paying bills. But more than anything I am grateful for the love.

I always thought Erin would be an elementary school teacher because she is so good with kids. Erin is actually a special ed teacher at a very special school for kids with multiple disabilities. Many of the kids have a private nurse that accompanies them to school, like my mom. It takes a lot of patience and compassion. I learned from watching Erin with Hana, especially when it comes to the challenges of feeding.

Feeding has not been going great. Hana is still liking the Mr. Juice Bear, or “Milk Bear”, as we call it. She is taking about 120 mL a day. Solid foods is not going very well at all, although I am always encouraged when we see the feeding specialist. I am getting negative about the whole thing. I forget the small successes. I think that because we saw improvement one day that will be the baseline to improve upon the next. It doesn’t work that way. Some days are worse. It is two steps forward, one step back and sometimes, two steps back for a while. I am getting desperate.

Adding to my desperation is the vomiting. We went five days without a vomit, that’s the new record. Then, last Sunday she vomited in the evening and her NG tube came shooting out. On Friday night she also pulled out her NG tube in the middle of the night. That’s the worst because you don’t want to put it back in in the middle of the night and her continuous feed leaks all over the bed. The next morning we tried to get her to eat and drink and maybe take some juice or medicines from syringes but it wasn’t happening so we put the tube back in around 10:30 in the morning. I felt defeated!

I’ve been doing some research and I am looking at a new approach, more on that in another post. Before I can begin on that Hana needs to get better. Last night was a terrible fussy night. The feeding pump alarm kept going off every fifteen minutes during her continuous feed. Hana kept waking and rolling out of bed. I ended up just sleeping in her room, next to her bed and finally figuring out why the feeding bag tube kept kinking and setting off the alarm. It was a very bad night for sleep. In the morning, Hana felt warm to me and I discovered she had a fever.

I knew the day would come when she would get sick, have a fever and we would have to see how her heart would handle it. I was on the phone with the Kaiser pediatrician on call and the Stanford pediatric cardiologist on call. Hana was clingy and fussy and tired. I was worried. The Kaiser doctors were worried but deferred to Stanford and made an appointment with our regular pediatrician for Monday. Stanford mentioned having us come in if her fever got worse. It did get worse. I called back. They said to give Tylenol. I gave it and she immediately vomited. So I called again and they had me re-dose it. Then we waited. I imagined having to go back down there and spend the night. I really didn’t want that. Paul held Hana while I made silly noises and faces and she started to laugh and giggle. She napped again. She watched baby signing times. It was 5 pm when I realized that I never changed out of my pajamas. The cardiologist called to check in on Hana and by then her fever had gone down and she was acting fairly normal! Everyone was relieved.

I am writing this late, later than I wanted because Hana woke up and vomited in the middle of me writing this. I checked her temperature again and it is back to a normal temperature, but I’m glad we have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow!

Take Her To Hawaii

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by katmeander

Today, Hana is 10-months old! Half her life ago she had already started to show the signs of heart failure, but we didn’t know. Yesterday she went to Stanford for an appointment with her heart failure/transplant cardiologist and nurse practitioner.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I also had a phone appointment with Hana’s dietician, who wants to increase the amount of formula we use to fortify the breast milk. The dietician was also very encouraged to hear how much Hana has been eating and drinking. At Stanford they actually wanted to decrease her volume of fortified milk to entice her to eat and drink by mouth because she is hungrier. The Kaiser dietician and the nurse practitioner at Stanford will talk and get back to me on what the plan is for the coming weeks. If we can double what Hana is taking by mouth then we can start talking about a plan to wean her off of the NG tube! I couldn’t believe we were actually having that discussion. It just seems like it has been such a long, slow, painstaking process that I can hardly believe that the end may be in sight!

The overall conclusion from her visit at Stanford was that we should treat her like a normal baby. They didn’t hear a gallop on this visit, like they did last time, which they believe the increase in her Lasix has helped. As planned, they increased her Enalapril to 2 mL twice a day. Next week, if everything is going fine they will double her Carvedilol to 4 mL twice a day. They think she looks great. They think she is gaining weight beautifully. She weighed in at 8.05 kg. Her blood pressure was 90/60. We talked about traveling. They said to travel, just let them know when we travel out of the area and where. They said to take her on a flight. I asked if they really thought it was okay to go as far away as Hawaii. They said, “Take her to Hawaii!” We may finally get to reschedule our trip! They did say to keep our travels to Oahu because that’s where the pediatric cardiologists are in Hawaii. Someday we will still try to take her to Maui, so we can take her to her namesake, Hana.

But first things first – we need to go back east to see friends and family!

Even before that, we need to get her off the NG tube. To do that we need to get her eating more solids and drinking her milk. Then I need her to start taking her meds from a syringe. It has been really difficult to get her to take foods now that Laura has gone. Today was the most frustrating day yet. I will say that even though she was refusing anything but some yogurt (I tried whipped potatoes and whipped yams with coconut oil) she did drink 175 mL out of Mr. Juice Bear (we call him Milk Bear). It wasn’t 175 mL all at one time, but throughout the course of the day. That is almost six ounces! I am wondering if Hana’s ability to control the amount of milk she gets inspires her, rather than me trying to force foods in her mouth. Tomorrow I am going to try just putting food and a spoon in front of her and see what she does. I’ve tried this before with not much luck, but she seems more interested now.

Next Wednesday it will be time to replace her NG tube. I decided that after her morning meds I’m going to take out the tube and leave it out – at least until after our feeding specialist appointment and see if we can encourage her to eat more when the tube is gone.

It’s felt like a really long week since Laura left. The house is a wreck. Stuff is everywhere. Paul and I have had some late nights getting everything done. The time I spend trying to get Hana to eat is such a huge time drain. I was very grateful for some awesome help today. Tomorrow my friend Erin comes from Pennsylvania! We grew up in the same neighborhood and have been friends since we were two! I hope we can continue to focus on inspiring Hana to eat and drink even more.

After the visit at Stanford I was so happy! I can’t remember the last time I was that happy. I remember being happy when Hana was able to breathe on her own. I was happy when she was moved out of the CVICU at Stanford. I was happy when she was discharged from Stanford. The next milestone is to get the NG tube out. Then the waiting game begins. We wait and we see how Hana does. It could be a very long wait, hopefully, before she starts to show signs that it is time for a heart transplant. In the meantime, I will be daring and continue to hope that her heart heals completely.

Focused On Feeding

Posted on June 17, 2015 by katmeander

My sister Laura was here this past week. It’s been really good to have the extra help, especially when it comes to feeding. Especially when its Laura. She’s an animal whisperer. At least, that’s what I think. Our dog Poppy came from her and I swear she works magic on animals. I think that includes babies.

After our feeding specialist session last week, in which Laura came with me, we decided to focus her week here on getting Hana to eat and drink more. She got to see how the feeding specialist worked and we just took that home and tried to build on those techniques. So, three times a day we tried to get Hana to eat and drink for 20-40 minutes each session. That’s a lot of time and it requires a lot of patience. It also seems to work better with two people. One person entertains Hana and the other person tries to slip food into her mouth.

We’ve discovered that Hana really doesn’t care for anything sweet. That leaves all prepared baby foods pretty much off the table (literally). I made some whipped potatoes and whipped broccoli. I whipped them with greek yogurt – which is Hana’s favorite food. I also whipped up a very small avocado. We alternated between these foods, mostly choosing potatoes and yogurt. Hana will actually grab the spoon of yogurt and put it in her mouth herself, which is really amazing. The others she’s not so crazy about. The more yogurt it has in it the more she likes it.

After trying to get her to eat we try drinking. I bought something called a Mr. Juice Bear which is used for special needs. It looks exactly like a honey bear container except that it has a straw in the lid. You gently squeeze the bear and liquid comes up the straw. We tried it with the feeding specialist first. Hana was ok putting it in her mouth, which was the amazing first step. Then we squeezed breast milk up the straw into her mouth. She didn’t protest, which was also amazing. Throughout the week of trying this we found we didn’t need to squeeze the bear to much, Hana was sucking it up through the straw herself!

It felt like a breakthrough week! It was not without a lot of time and effort. Still, she is only taking about 10-20mL of food and 10-30mL of milk in each session. That’s still less than a tablespoon of food, more like a teaspoon. The milk is an ounce or less. But I am seeing progress, although it is painstakingly slow! I think once Hana can be off the feeding tube life will become a lot easier!

In other news, Hana is speech delayed, so we are trying to also focus on promoting more babbling and making consonant sounds this week. We’ve been working on sign language. I play the Baby Signing Times DVDs for her when I need to keep her still and upright. She loves them! I don’t know what we would do without them but Paul and I are really sick of the songs, but at least we know the signs too. Hana is waving and clapping and the only sign she has made with the DVD so far is “outside”. It was amazing to watch! I also use an iPhone app for additional signs.

I will say a few words about diaper rash. Almost every diaper is a poopy diaper. Is this too much information? This makes it very hard to prevent diaper rash. I should buy stock in Desitin (is that Johnson & Johnson?). Even with a thick layer of maximum strength Desitin and an equally thick layer of Aquaphor, her diaper rash persists! She cries during diaper changes. We finally got a prescription strength cream from the pediatrician, which I think is making the difference. I change her diaper whenever I think she has pooped or every 1.5 to 2 hours. I am hoping that we can eventually go back to cloth diapers! I wish this kid could catch a break! She has so many discomforts.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with the dietician and then later we have to go to Stanford for a clinic visit. Hopefully everyone will be pleased with her weight gain.

This is how we hook up Hana’s feeding pump (in the hanging black backpack) and keep her upright while it is running.

Whipped broccoli face!

Away

Posted on June 10, 2015 by katmeander

Paul and I have been away for four days and three nights. My parents came from Pennsylvania to visit with Hana and to watch her while we went out of town. My mom is a pediatric nurse, so I knew everything regarding Hana’s medical needs would be taken care of (for example, she would be able to put her NG tube back in!).

I’ve still been experiencing problems getting Hana’s medications. The problems are stupid. I follow the instructions to give them notice to have the prescriptions ready, I check on them, I go to the counter, I talk to someone and still the prescriptions are not filled or filled properly. I finally talked to the pharmacy manager and he gave me the backline phone number. He said to ask for him or, if he is not there, to ask for the pharmacy manager to directly ask for the refills. He said this would make it easier for everyone. I am very glad. I did still receive a prescription that was not mixed at all, it was solution and powder. It is supposed to be mixed by a pharmacist. I am very lucky that my friend and neighbor Alyx is a pharmacist and she came over in her pajamas and mixed the medication so I could give it to Hana that night. We are very lucky!

We’ve been having problem with Hana’s feeding pump – today we got a replacement one. They tried to deliver the wrong pump yesterday, but now that is straightened out. I think the theme here is that things don’t go the way they should and I just need to get used to that. I have this expectation that people will be competent and perhaps they are the majority or the time, but 49% wrong is still a lot.

In very good news, Hana is looking and acting like a normal nine-month old. My parents had a great time with her and said you would never know she had a heart problem. That makes me feel better. I see her so much that I wonder if I can really know. She took to them very well and seemed very happy even when we were gone.

This week we are going to see the feeding specialist. We are also going to start Hana on prilosec since she seems to be experiencing a lot of discomfort, regurgitation and reflux at night during her continuous feed.

Soul, Syringes and Successes

Posted on May 29, 2015 by katmeander

Let’s celebrate successes. On Wednesday, we had another feeding specialist appointment. Hana ate about two tablespoons of mango/brown rice puree. I was in shock. She just kept eating. Well, it wasn’t that easy. There were videos and music boxes and games and bubbles and dolls and singing involved. So, we know she can eat that much, now I just have to figure out why she won’t eat that much for me. I’ve tried since and its back to fits and crying. Her new game is taking the food in her mouth and holding it there, slowly spitting it out, a little at a time. But she is allowing it in her mouth, so that is a success!

I’ve been trying to track down the syringes I ordered on eBay. The tracking number said that they were sent back to Florida, then, out of nowhere, they arrived today. This is good because I was starting to get a little nervous about being able to draw up meds now that many of our syringes have outlived their usefulness (except as a water flush). We now have 25 new 3mL syringes. You know your life is different when you get excited about new syringes.

Wednesday night we also bought a car! We got a Kia Soul. We love it. I know many people are excited that we are not driving around in the 17-year old Honda Civic. The Soul is roomy for a small car. It has four doors. It drives smooth. It fits in our garage. It’s much, much safer. It is a real pleasure and we feel we got a really great deal. Unfortunately, from the time I left home with Hana to the time we arrived back home with the new car was five hours. It involved strolling to the MUNI stop, riding the trolley to BART, taking BART during rush hour to Oakland and then getting picked up by Paul for a short drive to the Kia dealership. I nearly wiped out on MUNI when it started to go. I also was carrying a baby, a feeding pump, a diaper bag and a folded stroller. A very nice person gave me their seat on the crowded BART car. Thank you, nice and wonderful stranger. I think I looked comical. I must have. It felt a little comedic.

Hana’s NG tube became blocked at the Kia dealership. Most of the iron I tried to give her just squirted out at me. It was time to change the NG tube anyway, since it had been in for nearly four weeks, so we just took it out. I tried giving her syringe-fulls of her milk instead and she probably took about 10mL. I was very impressed. I really think that she would take more by mouth if we could just do away with the tube, but we need her to take more by mouth before we can do away with the tube. Its such a Catch-22.

In other news, Hana had an echocardiagram and a cardiology appointment today at Kaiser. The echo didn’t show any change in her heart. The cardiologist went back into the echo room for more images because she wanted to look more closely at the apex of Hana’s heart, checking for clots. That’s mostly what these echos are for – checking for blood clots. Hana only gained an ounce in weight over the last week, which is not wonderful but the cardiologist doesn’t want everyone to get too stressed about it if she doesn’t gain a ton of weight one week. The Stanford team wants us to decrease the total volume of milk she gets by 40mL a day, which isn’t a huge change, but we’ll see if it affects her weight gain. The purpose of this decrease is to entice Hana to take more by mouth. The dietcian is worried she won’t get enough nutrition. I want to try it, especially after the encouraging feeding session.

Of course, feeding today was another battle. In addition, tube feeding was a battle too! Hana only got half of her overnight feed because the pump said she was done but half the milk was left in the bag when I checked it (too late to correct it). I’ve heard that these pumps do this sometimes. This is about the third or fourth time this has happened. Today, when Hana was taking a nap, the feeding bag came unhooked from her NG tube and the feed that was running created a nice big, sopping milk puddle on her bed. Oh well. I won’t even go into detail about the carvedilol problem. I’ll just say they couldn’t make this prescription because they didn’t have any techs working, so I guess the pharmacist made it, or not. They were supposed to call me when it was ready, but it never was. I think I have enough to get me through to Monday, when I can pick it up again.

Bloodwork

Posted on May 26, 2015May 27, 2015 by katmeander

I usually update this blog while I am pumping before bed. Lately, I have been too tired to write. I’ve actually been nodding off while pumping! I guess it helps that nothing earth shattering has been happening either.

Since the last post, we had a feeding specialist appointment, which went well – there was no crying, but it did not show any improvement, nor any regression, so I guess it wasn’t terrible. This week I’m really going to focus on this – even if it is just mouth swipes with tastes of food, just to stimulate her tongue and mouth. We go back to see the feeding specialist on Wednesday.

Hana also had bloodwork on Friday. This always makes me nervous – not the actual blood drawl, but the results. The actual blood drawl wasn’t so bad and we ran into some neighbors while we were waiting. They have a dog, which is how we met them – at the dog park. They also have a boy who is three months older than Hana. Anyway, her BNP result came back in a few hours. That’s the test that I get nervous about because it is used as an indication for heart failure and Hana’s results have been consistently climbing. This time, her result was only five points higher than 11 days ago, which is much better than the 150-200 climb that we have been seeing. The rest of the results were posted online the next day. Her Magnesium, CO2, Chloride, and Sodium were all out of range, but they didn’t seem to be too much out of range. But what do I know? Maybe what looks slightly out of range is actually a lot.

The one number that didn’t seem to change much was her BUN. It was 13 eleven days ago, which is a normal number for a healthy baby. This time it was 15 and they would really like to see it at around 30. This is kind of a measure of how dehydrated she is and they would like her dehydrated so she has less fluid the heart has to work with. They increased her Lasix so I don’t know if she is supposed to have a higher BUN number because of that or how all that works. Hopefully we will get more answers today. But it does make me nervous that she could be holding extra fluid even with the Lasix increase.

Hana’s vomiting is about the same – once or twice a day. Sunday she didn’t vomit at all! The volume she vomits is not nearly as much as it used to be. She seems to be triggered by coughing or gagging. We’ve been trying to run her feeds when she is awake and not while she is sleeping, with the exception of her continuous, overnight feed. This is hard because there are only two hours between when one feed ends and another begins and her naptime sometimes runs into this. Her naptime is not on a strict schedule. I wish it were but with all the appointments, its hard to get on a really regular napping schedule. I don’t often have a lot of choice with appointment times either. I have noticed that Hana’s vomiting seems to be less when she naps well. I mentioned this to the feeding specialist and she confirmed my suspicion, saying that some recent research has been finding the same thing. We need rest to digest.

This week we’ve had the least amount of help, by far, since coming back home. It has been both good and hard. The amount of things to do is manageable, if I don’t have to cook, clean, shop or pay bills! We ate dinner after 9pm every night, except when we went out for my birthday! Luckily, we have a lot of frozen meals that we’ve started dipping in to. Paul has been doing most or all of the cooking. He’s pretty excellent at making pizza. This week we did have to make time to start shopping for a car, which is probably a sigh of relief for many people. Our car is a 1998 Honda Civic hatchback. It’s a manual transmission. It doesn’t have power steering and it only has two doors! It is a great city car if you don’t mind parallel parking on a hill with a clutch and no power steering. Actually, we drive with Hana so infrequently that it really hasn’t been an issue. But the time has come. The clutch badly needs to be replaced and we’d like something with more up-to-date safety features to drive Hana around in than a 17-year old car!

[I wrote this post two days ago and then never got a chance to post it!]

GI Recheck

Posted on May 20, 2015 by katmeander

Yesterday was kind of crazy. Hana vomited three, technically four times. She napped very poorly and I am beginning to think that there may be a correlation between poor sleep and vomiting. It was not a question that I asked when we went to see the GI doctor in the afternoon.

When we go to see the GI doctor she really sees three people – the GI nurse/case manager, the dietician, and of course, the doctor. I keep forgetting that we have a GI nurse/case manager in addition to our regular Kaiser chronic conditions case manager which is in addition to our Kaiser Outside Providers case manager whom I never talk to because I’ve never had a problem with Kaiser and Stanford. But anyway, seeing the GI nurse/case manager reminded me that I have another source to go to when I run into problems finding syringes, NG tubes, etc. She understands exactly what I need. Our chronic conditions case manager did get syringes for us, but they were the leur lock tip syringes meant to work with needles and even if you take the needles off they don’t fit into the NG tube port.

The overall consensus was that Hana looked great. Her liver is still enlarged (I think that is what they are calling it) as it goes across her entire abdomen. But the cardiologists all feel her liver each time as well. Her weight gain has been great – about 10 grams a day. Her weigh yesterday was 7.87 kg. They don’t want to change anything. We talked about NG tubes versus G tubes. Problems with NG tubes long term (besides them irritating her and creating an oral aversion and not encouraging her to want to eat by mouth they are easy to pull out when she gets older). We also talked about vomiting, which they aren’t overly concerned about. No one seems to be concerned about vomiting if the cardiologists aren’t worried its her heart and she is still gaining weight like she should.

I forgot to ask some questions. There are more details but I’m so tired. I’m trying to get more exercise, even go to the gym and do some other “pamper myself” sorts of things. I had my first ever facial and pedicure in the last couple of weeks. I even played some guitar, playing “Blackbird” and trying to remember the chords to “I’ll
Follow The Sun”. Hana liked it. She is now nine-months old and finally likes hearing me play more than “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” on guitar.

Little Things

Posted on May 18, 2015 by katmeander

Things have been going well. Hana still vomits once a day. Today it was in the morning and it wasn’t too much. I guess what makes her vomiting different, perhaps, from other kids that may vomit a lot is the intensity of it. There is usually crying, choking, and a lot of dry heaving. It is not like you look over and say, “Oh, she vomited!” It is usually much more dramatic. Not always, but most of the time.

I feel like things are really starting to come together. This is not without a lot of help and not enough sleep. What makes things busy for us, busier than a family with one baby might otherwise be, are the little things. It is pumping breast milk, washing pumping supplies, washing bottles, rinsing feeding bags, cutting bandages into ovals (and hearts), measuring and mixing formula, washing syringes, ordering meds, picking up meds, drawing up meds, ordering adhesive remover and NG tubes and feeding bags and syringes and adhesives and formula. It’s sending messages to doctors, logging when you fed her and gave meds and when she vomited and tried to eat solids. It’s starting her tube feed at the right time, but not when she is rolling around or when its time to nap. Its talking to the case manager about supplies and samples and breast pumps and prescriptions and what messages have come from Stanford and what echocardiagrams I need to take to them next time I am there and how much Hana weighs this week and how many times she vomited and when. It is a lot moving parts. Not too many of them can slide, either. They all have to get done and by a certain time and not too early either!

This is why all the help has been fabulous, because keeping up with all the new stuff leaves little time for normal things like grocery shopping and making dinner and cleaning and paying bills and doing finances and taxes and laundry. But each day it gets better, mostly. Today was a good, low-key day. We took Poppy on two good walks and spent the rest of the day getting naps (Hana, not me) and attempting solid foods and bottles and giving tube feeds while she was upright and awake but still getting time to practice crawling on the floor. Tomorrow we go back to the GI doctor. I have a long list (in my head) of things to go over, like choices of medications, and weight gain and types and sizes of tubes and formula, volumes and rates of feeds and how much to fortify and when I should stop pumping breastmilk. There are more questions, I hope I can gather them all together before I forget!

Here are some photos from the last couple of days.

Genetic Testing

Posted on May 15, 2015 by katmeander

So, I’m beginning to settle into a reality that Hana will vomit once a day. Since I’ve done so, it feels easier to manage. I will carry towels and a change of clothes (for both me and Hana) everywhere. I started keeping towels and basins handy for the unforeseen vomit. Yesterday she vomited all over me (and herself) while we were out and about and today she vomited on the carpet in her room. I just hope she is too young to be self conscious of it but I’m beginning to think not. Oh, my sweet baby.

Today my big project was chasing down one of Hana’s meds – her Lasix. I reordered it on Tuesday but it was still not ready and I realized I accidentally requested it be mailed to our house. Fortunately, the pharmacy tech only gave me a little bit of attitude about the whole thing. I hate asking for favors, especially when I’m to blame but Hana was completely out of Lasix so it must be done. I’m still learning how to manage all of her meds and I’m still learning the Kaiser system so I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. Right?

The other problem we are running into is our supply of syringes. I’m kind of amazed how difficult this is for people to grasp. I need syringes that can be used to administer meds into Hana’s NG tube. That shouldn’t be anything too special. But I guess it is. Or, it is hard for people to imagine that I’m only drawing 0.7 to 2.4 mL of liquid at a time. A 10 mL syringe is neither necessary or helpful since it doesn’t allow me to measure precise enough. There are more types of syringes than I ever imagined and you pretty much need a prescription in order to purchase them, that’s including the ones that don’t even work with needles! Our current supply we stockpiled after use during Hana’s hospital stay at Stanford. But now the plungers are wearing out and the numbers are wearing off.

The big news today was when the nurse practitioner from Stanford left me a voice message to call her about some new test results. I got very nervous and very confused since I had no idea what results they could have possibly received. It was the genetic testing results that were sent out two months ago just before Hana was discharged from Stanford. They tested 60 genes that they know of to look for the gene mutation that causes dilated cardiomyopathy. They found nothing. This doesn’t rule out genes but it does rule out a reason to do genetic testing on me or Paul. It’s possible that there is a gene they don’t know about. We still need to get our hearts checked every five years. For some reason, the news relieved me. Maybe it’s because I can have more hope that her heart may recover which isn’t really a possibility if the root cause is genetic.

Cruising Altitude – Checkup At Stanford

Posted on May 13, 2015 by katmeander

Today Hana had her regularly scheduled checkup with her heart failure/transplant cardiologist at Lucile Packard (at Stanford). Her weight is up to 7.7 kg (almost 17 lbs) which is 170 grams more than last Tuesday. They were able to get her blood pressure (sometimes, most times, they aren’t able to get it) which was 108/55. They could her an intermittent gallup in her heart. They talked about her creatinine levels. They decided to adjust her Lasix so she is more dehydrated. She is more dehydrated than most normal babies, but too hydrated for a baby with a poor heart. But the overall assessment is that she looks great. They called this her new cruising altitude.

That means that we will watch the weight gain trajectory she is on. They will still be increasing some of her meds until they get to the levels that they want. We will watch the vomiting, since this is a normal occurrence for many tube fed babies, but there seems to be much hope that she will eventually take things by mouth and the tube can go. One vomit a day is not so bad, they say. She recovers well. They said we can all relax a bit more and just focus on enjoying our baby. The cardiologist said he didn’t even want to bring up “the transplant topic” on this visit.

They increased her Lasix from twice to three times a day. They doubled her Carvedilol again. They will wait until next time to increase her Enalapril. They want to do bloodwork again in a week to check how she is doing with the increase in Lasix. We will do another echo at Kaiser in a couple of weeks and we will go back to see them at Stanford in a month.

I am feeling much calmer and relaxed. They even said we could think about making travel plans, including a possible airplane flight. They said to just treat her like a normal baby. I can take her swimming again and they also said to go ahead and take her on the bus! I’ve been avoiding the bus because of small, enclosed spaces with lots of people, but it has kept us confined to walking distance from our house (and we only have one car which Paul takes to work).

I think we are really starting to get into a rhythm. We definitely need less and less help at home, most days. I could still use more sleep. Some of the conveniences that we pay for people offer to us are still making it manageable, but I definitely see a cruising altitude for all of us soon! We are so grateful for all of the support and help that we have received from so many people!