Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Clinic Update

On April 6th, Ethan and I headed to our clinic appointment with Ken's mom, Grammy, as well. Ethan weighed 22 lbs 7oz, which was less than he had weighed at his 1 year appointment 6 weeks earlier. He was at 23 lbs 4 oz then. He had been sick for the last week, but a pound is a lot. In the pulmonology department they don't like him to go below the 50th percentile for ratio of weight to height. He fell just below because of the weight loss.
He had sputum test and everything came out normal. It even showed that something that he had been growing in his lungs had completely gone away. Must have been the antibiotics over Christmastime that did it.
We met with Ethan's dietician and she told us to start trying to fatten him up again. We were given a list of things to add to his food. For example, butter, jello, Nutella, mayonaise, etc. He has to gain back an entire pound and we're hoping he does it before the beginning of May when he has a weight check.
His pulmonologist put him on an antibiotic for 10 days because of his wet cough. His lungs were clear, his ears were clear, and there were no other problems.
We are set to go back into clinic in June maybe July if his weight goes up and he doesn't have any other problems.
Right now, we are in week 3 of sickness. He has had the same wet cough since March 31st. We are all ready to be done with the nebulizers that we're doing 3x a day, plus his vest and an albuterol puffer 3x a day as well. Ken and I try to just do what has to be done, but it's hard when it goes on and on. We know that eventually this will be an all the time reality. Most likely Ethan will be on more meds and nebulizers as he grows which will take up more time. I'm mad that we have to do them in the first place. Please just let the poor guy catch a break and we well again.
Throughout all of this we've been dealing with pink eye. Ethan got it on March 31st and a week later I caught it. He was treated and while on his antibiotic for his wet cough it went away. As soon as the antibiotics were done on Saturday it came back. So now he's on a much stronger eye drop. I'm ready for April to be over. Bring on May!

1 comment:

  1. Try Avocado, pediasure, greek yogurt, coconut milk, garbonzo beans and all those other really high protein foods. We did that a lot with Judah and his weight gain issues. It helped!

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