Guy Smiley

On Monday, Jeff and I took Henry out for his early morning walk. We weighed him at 8 lbs!!!

Dr. Bianchi called in the morning. Henry's thyroid levels are normal, but the TSH level is still a little high. However, two weeks ago, the TSH was 11.9 (9/17), and based on Saturday's blood draw, it was 8.19 (9/29). Normal TSH is 5.8, but at least his levels are trending in the right direction. TSH is a measure of how hard the body has to work to produce thyroid hormones. He'll be retested in three weeks. Henry's hematocrit (red cell count) was 30. It hasn't improved since leaving the NICU about 7 weeks ago. Normal is 32. His basic metabolic panel came back normal. His sugar level is a little low at 61 (low end of normal is 65). I asked about the Alk-Phos levels. Dr. Bianchi said that he didn't know Henry needed one! I am very frustrated at this. Dr. Tsai said that she was going to send Dr. Bianchi a letter about this. When I talked to Bianchi's nurses on Friday, I mentioned that Dr. Tsai was supposed to have sent a letter about a basic metabolic panel and some other things. I guess they ordered the blood tests based on my word of BMP (forgot when I said "and some other things") rather than actually looking at a letter that may or may not have been sent. We need to know his Alk-Phos levels because that is an indicant of bone density. I wish people would: (a) follow through on things, and (2) be conscientious about what they are doing. Too much to ask for form the medical profession? So, we'll have to wait yet another few weeks for the Alk-Phos.

I asked Dr. Bianchi about the pulse-ox levels. I don't think that nurse Michael ever called Bianchi's office about it. Nonetheless, I had mentioned it to Bianchi's nurses on Friday afternoon. Dr. Bianchi said to call the pulmonologist.

Despite sending an email Friday, I hadn't heard back from the pulmonology nurse about what to do with Henry's oxygen. On Friday, he had been between 84% to 90% on his saturation levels. So, I called the pulmonology nurse plus left a message for Dr. Brown at the Wilmot Clinic. No one returned the call. We decided not to panic because Henry's color has looked fine. If he was blue, that'd be another matter.

Grandpa visited Henry in the afternoon. In the late afternoon, Grandma came to help out. After I went to work (evening class), Jeff and Grandma took Henry out for his evening walk. When I got back from teaching, I took the first Henry shift, and Jeff took the second round.

Tuesday morning, we went for our early morning walk. Henry was incredibly smiley all morning. Jeff felt like Henry was doing an especially good job at paying attention to our faces. He's been interactive with us for a long time, but the depth of the interactions get better and better. Henry was super happy yesterday morning. It was nice to see.









We weighed Henry at 8 lbs 1.5 ozs!

Grandma came over to hold Henry in the early afternoon. Nurse Kathy from Dr. Brown's office called. She said that we should put Henry back on the oxygen. Gee, it only took them four days to tell us that! She's ordered a pulse-ox machine for our home to do a study on Henry.

Around 4PM, Jeff and I took Henry to Dr. Bianchi's office for his wellness check. Henry's pulse-ox was 94%, which was good. He was weighed at 8 lbs 2 ozs. Length: 19.5 inches. Head circumference: 37 cm.

Dr. Bianchi felt a little tightness in Henry's neck. And it appears that Henry prefers turning his head to his right side. The back of his head is a little flat on his right side. So, we have to do some stretching exercises for his neck. Switch the position from which we change his diapers. And encourage his to eat from his left side. I was a little surprised that his head was a little flat. We hold him most of the time. And, he is often upright. We have actually been trying the left side thing for a while (but perhaps not as aggressively as we could), because I wanted to make sure that his muscles were strong on both sides.

Henry was given his second round of shots. I requested that he be given sucrose. I gather that they don't use it as a standard procedure. Sucrose acts as a pain inhibitor for infants. I also requested that the shots be given two at a time (one in each leg). Well, all of the nurses had gone home, except for the one giving Henry his shots. And, I guess that doctors aren't willing to help out by giving shots themselves (they let the nurses do that). I was a little irked that my request couldn't be fulfilled. I'm mean a doctor should know how to give shots as well, right? The nurse who gave the shots did do it quickly. Thank goodness. Henry was very, very unhappy though. He went from being Guy Smiley to giving us the Beaker look. And he did the heart breaking "silent cry."

Grandpa Kenski came over in the evening to hold Henry. Jeff went to bed for a few hours. After my dad left, I took over Henry duty for a while. He was a bit fussy. We did give Henry some Tylenol before Jeff went to bed. We were hoping that would take some of the edge off. Henry didn't sleep much last night. I'm trying to get him used to his crib, without much luck. He did stay in his crib for over an hour (from 1:15-3AM). But he was making noises the entire time (not cries, but a lot of grunts and coos). Jeff took over around 3AM.

We took a walk with Henry and the dogs this morning. Henry is being held by Grandpa now. He continues to be a bit fussy today. We gave him another round of Tylenol. Hopefully, he'll return to being Guy Smiley soon.