Today was River’s follow up at the GI clinic. She saw Dr. Michael Pickens and her dietician Judy. The picture here is of Dr. Pickens treating the granulation tissue that is beginning to form on her wound site of the tube. He’s putting a little silver nitrate on it, and daddy is holding her arms out of the way because she tends to be quite strong and grabby. She currently still has the long tube, but will be switched out for a mic-key on Tuesday by Dr. Escobar!
The granulating tissue must be treated with silver nitrate or it will keep growing beyond where it should. At this point she will need silver nitrate for a few weeks and then some prescription cream later.
We discussed at her appointment the fact that she is still experiencing a large amount of gas in her tummy, which was normal at first, following a g-tube surgery, but should be much better by now, which it’s not. We still have to vent her quite a bit, and I have her vented all night. Right now Dr. Pickens thinks we should take the probiotics out of her diet for now, and see if that doesn’t help the gas get better. Her gas bloat in her tummy has been causing her to vomit more often lately, whenever she has formula in her tummy and not on vent. Whenever I open up her G-tube port(vent it) usually a bunch of air(gas) comes out, and that causes her discomfort and may cause her to throw up or spit up. She could just “vent” herself, which the rest of us call burping, but for whatever reason, River just isn’t down with burping. It possibly could be because she’s never been much of a burper, and the sensation of the burp needing to come out could be causing her to gag and/or have a reflux and vomiting reaction. We may have to switch formulas soon as another attempt to resolve this.
But in other news, her growth is doing great! She has seemed to level out in the 25th percentile in height, she is now 68.6 cm(2′ 3″). And She is 18 pounds 2 ounces! The dietitian has finally recommended that we lower the density of her formula a bit, that may help her vomiting, and her weight gain has been so good, almost “too” good.
River is on the downhill of a bad cold this week. Earlier this week she was scheduled to have both her physical therapy and feeding therapy, but I had to cancel both of them due to illness. I believe it was Monday or Tuesday night that she was up in the middle of the night crying because she was so stuffy and sneezed, and then was spitting up and I was trying to help her and then she explosively vomited up into my eyeball. It stung. Bad.
Today though she is defiantly beginning to feel better but still has a runny nose. The rest of us have all been a little up and down with cold symptoms, but the kids got it the worst. Next week we are on board for feeding therapy and a the visit with the surgeon, and her cardiology check up! A busy week at Mary Bridge again. 3 visits a week is average for us anyway!
River's Journey 