New Medication and New Classroom

Two big changes coming up for Evan! One is his new reflux medication, Prevacid. The Zantac we gave him previously was in liquid form, which made it easy to administer. The Prevacid is in capsule form...hmmmm, how do you give a pill to a toddler?

Dr. Hassan had told us yesterday to open the capsule and sprinkle it on a spoonful of applesauce. Ummmm, hellooo, the kid isn't eating (and applesauce is something we've never been able to get him to eat). So now, we figured out that we have to open the capsule and dump it into Evan's mouth. I get to be the bad mom and administer it in the mornings. The trick is to pinch his nose to get him to open up, dump it into his mouth and give him a milk chaser to get all the little balls of medicine down.

We also found out that on Monday, Evan is moving into the 1-year old room. All the teachers said it's time for him to move up since he's starting to walk a little more now. He'll be in with the young 1-year olds, so he already knows most of the kids in there.

Check Up With Dr. Hassan and Upper GI

Today was the last minute appointment with Evan's Gastroenterologist (Dr. Hassan). We're fortunate that he comes down from Tucson about once a month now. Before Evan's 9:30 appointment, we had to get an Upper GI done on him at Sierra Diagnostics. Dr. Klein was the doctor who did the procedure, which didn't go as well as planned.

The x-ray technician who prepared the Barium drink made it really thin. I was prepared with one of Evan's bottles with a y-cut nipple for thick liquids. Of course Evan went crazy when it came time for him to lay on the x-ray table. When we gave him the bottle with the Barium, he was laying on his back and all the liquid rushed out through the nipple. Poor guy probably felt like he was drowning, so he didn't get enough good swallows for good pictures.

They also took a chest x-ray since Evan had a bout of pneumonia last fall. It was just a precautionary thing to make sure he didn't have any lung damage. Dr. Klein was able to see that all his digestive anatomy was in place; which we pretty much knew already.

Our appointment with Dr. Hassan was quick. He decided to give Evan a prescription for Prevacid; so we stop giving him Zantac and give him this instead. We have to get Evan re-weighed next Thursday at the pediatrician and if he is still losing weight, Dr. Hassan wants a call from the pediatrician. He weighed 8 kilograms when they checked his weight (about 17.6 pounds)

Monthly Synagis Shot

The dreaded monthly Synagis shot was today. The one good thing about the shot is that we always get a weight check on Evan. We were sad to see he has dropped a good bit of weight (he weighed about 17 pounds 6 ounces). Evan was up over 18 pounds; and we knew he would have a drop in weight since he's eating pretty much no solid food now (even on the Zantac).

The nurse was also concerned and was proactive in calling Dr. Hassan (Evan's Gastroenterologist) to see about getting him to see Evan ASAP. We were able to get him in the next day when Dr. Hassan would be in town. The doc wanted an Upper GI done on him before his appointment on Thursday.

Trying to Get Well!

I guess when it rains, it pours! We both got back to work this week, I'm still hacking up a lung though. To top it off, on Tuesday, I got a bout of food poisoning. One of my co-workers also got sick (we ate cherry turnovers from Safeway). T is almost back to normal, so hopefully we'll be all better by the end of the weekend.

Not Much to Post From the Sick Family!

We've finally experienced the whole-house sickness. It started last Friday night with Evan running a high fever that never broke the whole weekend. The entire weekend he wanted to be held. I had to sleep with him on my chest for three nights (ouch)! I managed to get Evan in to see the doc on Monday and found out he had a blazing ear infection. He got a shot of a high dose antibiotic and I had to bring him back on Tuesday for a second course of the antibiotic. This is only his second major ear infection, so that's not too bad I think. We were able to get Evan back to daycare on Wednesday afternoon.

T took to the sick bed on Sunday and didn't really emerge until Tuesday to go the doctor. I started getting the funk on Sunday and I'm still trying to kick it. T has a sick-pass from the doc for work, and he stayed home all week. I went in to work yesterday feeling miserable and stayed home today and slept most of the day. T's prescription cough medicine worked miracles!

Hope to back to our cheery selves this weekend. ;-)

A Little Snowy Day

Living in southern Arizona, we get some odd weather. Yesterday and today we had some snowy weather blow through. It's not much snow, but always fun to see for the few hours it's here.

Funny Shirts

I found this website on -line called www.cafepress.com. You can find t-shirts with a whole host of slogans and such. I did a search on "Japan" and found a handful of cute youth-sized shirts for Evan. I tried to get a picture of him in this one: Club Sumo Train Hard and Eat Plenty.

Happy V Day and 19 Months!

Evan hit the 19 month mark today. Thank goodness I threw out the baby books a long time ago since I would be depressed reading about what he should be doing at this age. One website says at 19 months he should be able to: use a spoon and fork; Runs; throw a ball underhand; enjoy helping around the house. That's a big no-go here! I had to back-track on the website to see where he does fit in and there was no one age since he's all over the place on what he can do. Some of the 16 months tasks he can do: turn the pages of a book; and discovers the joys of climbing (he loves climbing down the bed and couch so much to the point he's dangerous now). Being that he was 10 weeks premature, I guess that's not too bad.

Tomorrow we have a preliminary meeting with the Blake Foundation people to do a reevaluation on him.

Kicking the Ball Around

Evan kicking the ball around the backyard. Evan is getting the hang of the walking-thing, he only needs one hand to help him now.

Jello Painting

EGD at TMC

Today Evan has his EGD at Tucson Medical Center. The EGD was a "Esophagogastroduodenoscopy"...um, yeah, real easy to say. Basically, Dr. Hassan put a camera down his throat to view his esophagus, stomach and upper duodenum. Evan was put under local anesthesia so he didn't feel a thing during the procedure.

The procedure was very quick, only about 5 minutes, but the prep time to put him under took the most time. Of course Evan was not a happy guy even at the beginning when the nurse was getting his weight and other vital signs. We had to wait a while since there was a back-up of patients, so Evan eventually calmed down and just watched all the nurses go by taking care of the other adult out-patients having similar procedures done. When it came time for the procedure he went right to the anesthesiologist.

After the procedure Evan was vomiting a bit of blood and mucus, which is common with the procedure. It took a little while to get him calmed down and to get him to drink some Pedialyte since he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the night prior. We met with Dr. Hassn and and he said Evan does have GERD, but it wasn't an extreme case.

He gave Evan a prescription for Zantac that he has to take for the next 2 months (twice a day). If we don't see an improvement in his eating in about a week or so, Dr. Hassan wants to see him again. If we see improvement, we don't have to do a follow-up until 2-3 months. Dr. Hassan thinks this will solve his eating issues. We'll see!

"Walking" in the Backyard

Evan "walking" in the backyard with some help:

Visiting With Grandma

Evan's Grandma and Aunt Yoko were out here visiting for the week. Evan got to play hooky from daycare.







He walks a few steps in this vid: