and I reached the unpleasant conclusion that we had to go diaper genie diving to see if Henry had had blood in his other stools and we missed it. Once we got Henry to sleep, we unloaded the diaper genie, put on some gloves, and inspected his old diapers. The diaper genie is a nifty little device that wraps up each diaper in a bag by twisting the bag after you put the diaper in it. The end result is a very long garbage bag with twists around each diaper. We diligently went
through his diapers. We found five possible blood suspects. It was kind of hard to tell because some diapers were a few days old. But all in all, it doesn't look like Henry has had much blood in his stools...thank goodness. I have stopped eating all dairy products, which is hard. Hopefully, the blood is the result of a milk allergy, so we can just move on (rather than being left in limbo).


We did a little bit of tummy time in the afternoon. Jeff and I held the dogs and cats back from inspecting Henry. Bits, our kitten, was particularly interested in Henry and tried to bop him on the head. I think that she thought he was a new toy. We stopped her before she could touch him.
Henry gets three medications: Reglan (4 times per day), Ranitidine (2 times per day), and Poly-Vi-Sol (once a day). I came across some information on the internet that claims that in some cases, Reglan has had long-term neurological side effects. I called Dr. Moussa to ask about this. Got a call from a nurse, who seemed pretty clueless (about Henry and about Reglan side effects). Eventually, she came to the conclusion that I needed to talk with Dr. Moussa, who called me in the evening. She wasn't convinced that the Reglan side effects are anything but short-term. She said that she tried taking one of her preemies off it, and he ended up spitting up a whole bunch, so she put him back on it.
My parents watched Henry for a few hours on Tuesday evening, so that Jeff and I could get dinner at a nearby restaurant and stop by the grocery store.
On Wednesday morning, Henry had a eye doctor's appointment at 1PM with Dr. Banuelos who saw Henry in the NICU in July. The staff at the eye doctor's place were quite good. One nurse seem particularly informed. As it turned out, she (Sonia) had an infant born Henry's size less than two year ago (also was in the NICU at UMC for 100 days). Sonia let us stay in one of the back offices while Henry's eyes were being dilated rather than sending us back to the waiting room. She was very sensitive about the fact that Henry shouldn't be around a room of people. Dr. Banuelos does a lot of infant eye screenings around the city. She remembered me and Henry. She hadn't met Jeff before, but she remembered meeting Grandpa. I held Henry while she inspected his eyes. Jeff decided that it was best if I held him. The eye inspection wasn't exactly pleasant because she had to pry open Henry's eyes with a Clockwork Orange device. But the inspection itself was rather quick. She said that Henry's eyes looked "fantastic" and "fabulous." It appears that the laser surgery did the trick. He is, of course, at risk for some other eye problems and will most likely need glasses. But for now, things are fine. We'll be seeing her again in 3 months.
Jeff called Dr. Moussa's office at 4PM. At our appointment on Monday, Dr. Moussa said that we should call her Wednesday afternoon. When I talked with her Tuesday, she said that she'd talk with us the next day. Well, Jeff called the office. They wanted to know the reason for the call. He said that Henry has had bloody stools, and we needed to follow-up with Dr. Moussa about his formula supplementation. When we bottle feed Henry, we fortify the breast milk with Enfacare (1/4 tsp formula to 45 mls breast milk). Dr. Wispe and other neonatalogists said that this was necessary for Henry because of his metabolic bone disease (bones weak because calcium is usually infused into the bones during the last trimester). The formula is a cow's milk based supplementation. When Dr. Moussa said to eliminate dairy, that included the supplementation. She was going to investigate other options and get back to us. A doctor from Catalina Pediatrics called back, concerned about the bloody stools. Jeff explain the situation. The person said that Dr. Moussa wasn't in this afternoon and wouldn't be in on Thursday either. We are perplexed over why she said to call Wednesday afternoon if she wasn't going to be there. We hoped that she'd call in the evening (as she did the night before), but no luck. Hopefully, she'll call tomorrow. Otherwise, we'll have to pursue other options. After the mess at Generations Healthcare with my OB, I don't want to take any chances.
No comments:
Post a Comment