February 3, 2011

February won't cut us slack.

Bertrand coming out of anesthesia in post-op.
He'll be going under AGAIN later this month for his endoscopy.
That's general anesthesia 3 times in little over a month, but who's counting?

After the medical triathlon we'd been running the past several months, we expected a break in February--a chance to settle into a routine with Bertrand's new preschool and therapies. No such luck. Here's a quick recap of Bertrand's week.

Ophthalmology
After being diagnosed with a corneal infection on Monday and going through Same Day Surgery for a biopsy and diagnostics, Bertrand was placed on a full spectrum antibiotic. At his follow-up appointment on Wednesday his eye was pink rather than red and the Doctor pronounced him improved but "not out of the woods". Since then, Bertrand's eye has improved both in color and the white puss patch covering his pupil has shrunken! He has a follow-up on Monday morning where, after a weekend of continued recovery, we hope he will receive the all-clear to resume school, therapies and other outings.

Neurology
We received the medical reports from Bertrand's visit to Cleveland Clinic. (I'll try to condense these in a separate blog post.) Bertrand uneventfully completed his Zonegran wean! He also unintentionally completed a wean from the Ketogenic diet without incident, but we are still holding our breaths. We plan to keep steady over the next 1-2 weeks to give his body time to find its balance after the weans, infection and whatnot. We're waiting to hear back from Bertrand's neurologist at Primary Childrens' Medical Center in regard to initiating a Keppra wean or an increase in Lamictal, but I'll probably have to ping her again within a few weeks. We also have a follow-up with her in early April.

Gastroenterology
Bertrand's gastroenterology appointment on Thursday was the first time he's been congratulated on his weight! He is down to 85 percentile! The GI doctor was also pleased with Bertrand's continued reduction in liver function values. He tentatively approved valproic acid (Depakote) treatment for seizures contingent on continued carnatine supplementation. Given Bertrand's vomiting black chunks (most likely blood clots) during his sickness last week, the doctor would like to conduct an endoscopy to check for stomach ulcers and check for pancreatitis. Both these conditions are very common in "neurologically complicated children" like Bertrand given the number and quantity of medications. New labs will be drawn for liver function, etc. during the endoscopy, and I am waiting to hear back on the scheduling of this proceedure. Assuming--fingers crossed--that the endoscopy is unremarkable, we will follow-up with GI again in June/July.

Genetics
We should be hearing the results of Bertrand's genomic sequencing at Duke in early March.

Bertrand looking a bit shellshocked but grateful to be out of surgery.

1 comment :

  1. Poor kiddo, that sounds like a lot to go through. Maybe he's trying to get all of the anesthetizing out of the way early in the year, before his sister arrives? That's so neat that they're pushing each other, though! Bertrand is going to be crazy about the baby when she comes.

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