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Monday, May 10, 2010

Vanderbilt Ortho/Nutrition Update

Cohen has had a busy day with lots of appointments. He was a real trooper through it all. He never made a peep until we were almost back to our house!
We started out with the Nutritionist at 11 am. He weighed 9 lbs. 8 ounces! Justin and I thought that was great! The nutritionist did not really agree---she said he needs to have gained a little more......so she upped his feeds. In the "growth curve" she showed us, he was going up but still under the line of a "normal" 4 1/2 month old weight (of course). The part I disagree with is they are starting the chart with the weight he was when he came to Vandy on March 1st. They aren't counting the 4+ lbs. he gained while at Baptist. He only ever gained just a few ounces at Vanderbilt total. Regardless, he is doing great in this area! I mean, 9 lbs! That is amazing considering everything he has come through.

After that, we ran over to the G tube clinic just to let nurse Toni take a peek. We felt like the tube was "loose" yesterday due to granulation tissue around it. Turns out, his mic-key button balloon was busted AGAIN! She said to have 2 busted balloons this soon is unheard of.........so, she put in a mini-button to try this time. It's smaller and seems good so far. We will hope for the best! SO glad we ran by there, we would have likely been making the trip tomorrow or tonight when it popped out!

The last appointment was with the Orthopedic doctor. Let me back track on this a little. Cohen has been seeing an pediatric ortho doctor from about day 5 or 6 of life. The first one we saw at Baptist originally told us nothing needed to be done. Then he came back about a month or so later and put cast on him for 5 days.

When we moved over to Vandy, I requested that we have a new ortho doctor for a 2nd opinion. My main reason is because the 1st one would not call us back after we missed seeing him at the hospital. He never consulted with us on any decision. I guess he just did not communicate well, and I just didn't see dealing with that long term. I am really glad we made the switch. Our Vandy ortho doc is great. He is really down to earth and understands he is working with our tiny baby! He does think he needs a series of casting. We will go back June 9th to being the process. The good news is he thinks that is all he will need. I point blank asked him if he felt Cohen's left foot (the one he doesn't move as much) will be a working limb he can walk on. He said he was almost certain it would be. He said the worst case scenario would be an outpatient surgery in a couple of years to clip the heel cord, but only if casting doesn't fully fix the problem. I felt like this news was as good as we could expect. All in all, it was what we wanted to hear.


It was a good day at Vandy. Much better than last week. We even ran into Dr. Walsh and Sunny in the hall! (our old NICU doctors) It was great to see them, and they made a big fuss over how great Cohen looked.

We are thankful for great doctors and nurses who will be continuing to look after Cohen for years to come. Our prayer today is for Cohen's continued healing and strength. Love to you all.

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