If I'm wearing a hospital bracelet, it must be Thursday

Eden's check up today was great. As usual.

Mom decided not to go with us this time since there's been so little going on at her visits the last few times (they're kind of boring). It was a good one to bail on, since the check in people were short staffed and we sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes before the nurse from Children's came and told them to start checking in the patients for the cardiac clinic. So I was one of the next ones and was waiting outside the clinic 15 minutes after my scheduled appointment.

Once in, everything went as usual. Eden's weight is up to 14 pounds 11 ounces (she's apparently a bit of an overachiever in that aspect) putting her finally in the 15th percentile. Yay for her! She's also 26 inches long, which makes sense since all her clothes are baggy around by fitted length wise. We had a bit of trouble getting her pulse ox and pulse, but we finally got them and she had good numbers for all of that, as usual.

We were originally scheduled to have a doppler on her legs next week to make sure there was no physical reason for her cold feet but since we were there and its the same office, we went ahead and did it today. And of course, her veins and arteries in her legs and feet are great. The tech said she'd never done that can on a person this young before, so that was fun for everyone. Eden fussed a bit because we had to stretch out her legs and keep them still for the scan. We placated her with her plush ladybug rattle and a bottle.

There was some concern about her dropping her fourth bottle of the day, but considering she gained about 12 ounces in the past week AFTER dropping that fourth bottle, I think she's good. Her fussiness recently is being attributed to teething, also evidenced by her constant drooling and gnawing on her fists. I had no idea of there was maybe some medical reason we couldn't give her Orajel on her gums but the doctor said its ok to give it to her.

She has also been cleared for childcare! Super exciting news. I can leave her in the nursery at church on Sundays and at FKO periodically. provided there's no sick kids and the workers wash their hands. It's inevitable that she'll get sick but we'll take care of it when it happens. I'm looking forward to dropping all three off and maybe having a day to myself. Haircut, movie, nap, lunch with a friend....shower. lol

The big exciting thing (though getting to leave her at FKO once in a while is pretty huge) is that they've decided not to even try anything until she's a year old. They anticipate her sats will start to drop around that time, so that's when they'll do the catheter and then her surgery. I was all prepared to tell them that I was not interested in having her surgery past the first part of October because I want to be home for Christmas with the boys but since they're postponing everything until she's 1, there was no need! I'm pumped about that. Of course, that means we'll start over with the deductible and out of pocket (which we knew would happen) but we'll very likely hit it almost immediately.

So as usual, she's doing great, the nurses and doctors and techs all love her. As do we. Of course.

Asher was being punished with no tv so he made up for it by reading to Eden. He read her all of her books on her shelf: several books about ladybugs, Alice the Fairy, How I Became a Pirate, and The Fantastic Flying Books. She seemed pretty engrossed. 

Keeping an eye on things

So many posts so close together and then nothing for a while....that's the way it goes around here.

At Eden's two week check up, she was diagnosed with ptosis, a weakened eyelid. It doesn't bother her, but it could affect her vision over time. It'd been a bit of a chore getting an appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist: she had a baby on January 30, so was on maternity leave when Eden was diagnosed; everyone we talked to said she was awesome and to wait until she was available, which wasn't until about a month ago; she's not covered under BCBS so we had to go through a three week process of getting her pre-approved. But we finally got everything together: appointment on a day when the boys have FKO and pre-approval from BCBS.

Eden had her appointment today and of course did great. She smiled and cooed at all the staff and just generally made her presence known in a sweet way. Eden's eyes are otherwise great. She has a bit of astigmatism in both eyes, but it's about the same so she won't need to have glasses right now to correct anything or keep anything from getting worse. Since Austin has astigmatism, she comes by it honestly.

Otherwise, she got a clean bill of eye health and the doctor wants to see her once a year to keep checking everything to make sure things don't get worse. Since we were pre-approved for six visits between now and June 4, we went ahead and made an appointment for June 2 or so. Good to be prepared, right?

I mentioned that my ophthalmologist said he wasn't sure if they'd even consider surgery due to her heart but the doctor today said she didn't see an issue. She said since she wouldn't recommend having surgery on Eden's eye until she's at least 4 when there's a lot more eyelid tissue to work with, and since Eden's heart surgery is going to happen in the next year, she thinks there will be no problem fixing the ptosis in a few years.

So yes, that's another surgery to schedule for Eden. Luckily, this doctor is in town and operates at Hendrick's. So we'll just have to hope that by the time Eden's ready for that surgery, they and BCBS have made up. Otherwise, we'll go through the pre-approval process again.

Everything else is good. Eden's growing so fast. She's up to 13#15 as of this morning, so probably an actual 14# by now. Which is twice her birth weight. She hit it two weeks early! Go baby! The boys are doing well, too. Reading a lot and enjoying movies at Century this summer. Austin and I have been working and keeping up with the kids. So all in all, a pretty good summer around here, though we're only half way through.

Eden's Medical Fund