Ramsey's Checkup at CHP

Ramsey waits for his X-Ray

Today we took Ramsey to Children's for a checkup. It has been one month since he was discharged! He had an X-Ray, bloodwork and a meeting with the surgeon who did his repair. She was "overly ecstatic" at his progress. He weighed in at 10lbs 7oz, which is in the 10th percentile. It was awesome to see how far he has come on their graph! His lungs looked great on the X-Ray. However, his diaphragm seemed to curve up a little on the left side. She said the patch may have stretched, but there are no signs that he has re-herniated. We will take him back in a month to take another look at it. She reviewed the signs of possible re-herniation so we will know what symptoms to look for.  Symptoms include labored breathing, flared nostrils, vomiting, and a decrease in bowel movements. Sometimes, there are no symptoms at all which is why we're relieved to be monitoring it closely.

I took this photo of Ramsey's scar today to show how well it has healed. You can hardly even see it, so I added the white line to point it out. His stomach bulges a good bit, on this side. I can't explain it well, and I don't want to confuse anyone, but it's basically a result of trying to fit all his organs into a stomach that was once empty. If the bulge remains, they may suggest a "tummy tuck" to correct it, but that would be a long way off. If he would ever re-herniate, they would take care of it when they did that repair.

Chicks dig my scar!

The bloodwork drawn today was to check his hepatic (liver) function. This will tell us if his billirubin is still heading back to normal. We don't have those results yet, but his appearance tells us that things are improving. We should probably have those results tomorrow. Hopefully they are good so we can discontinue his Actigall, a medication given to prevent gallstones. We are also going to try stopping the Zantac, which he is taking for reflux. If we can quit both medications, the only thing we'll have to give him are the nasty liquid vitamins that all babies take!

We will continue to use the monitor for the next month. We really don't know what caused it to alarm a few weeks ago; sometimes you just can't explain it, but most likely it was the leads.

We are continuing to "seclude" the boys for a little while longer.  The doctor believes it is best to keep Ramsey away from children and large groups until warmer weather officially arrives and the chance of respiratory infection decreases. I'm disappointed because we'll most likely miss our families Easter celebrations, but we'll do whatever is needed to keep him healthy and out of the hospital. I look forward to spending more time with family and friends, and especially introducing Ramsey to people he hasn't even met yet; that warm weather won't come soon enough!!