Hi everyone,
We just wanted to give everyone a quick update on Isabel. Monday and Tuesday, she was not running any fevers and also still not vomiting. In fact, on Tuesday in particular, she was VERY interested in lunch and ate rice cereal, a whole thing of baby food applesauce, shredded cheese, noodles from chicken noodle soup, and a little bit of raspberry yogurt. She has been nursing pretty well, and on Monday was taking 4-6 ounce bottles of breast milk too. On Tuesday she started to have a little less appetite for bottles, but we thought maybe that was because she was eating more real food.
We were still concerned Tuesday night because her behavior still had not really improved all that much. She was very fussy and irritable, and not really wanting to support her head or her body for very long periods of time. We placed a call to Dr. Williams, and explained all the updates, and she wanted to see her. After examining her, and seeing that her behavior had not improved to where we all thought it should, she did send us up to Children's Hospital, where we were supposed to be admitted for some more IV fluids, lab tests, and maybe some additional tests that they did not initially perform at Ridges.
While we were at the ER at Children's, waiting on the nurses to come in with an IV and some blood drawing equipment, Isabel actually started to do things that we haven't seen her do in over a week! She was chattering more than we have heard her do, she was engaging with us and playing with some toys, and even leaned off my lap as if she wanted to get down onto the floor a couple of times (we didn't put her down on it!) We told the doctor what was going on, and he was very kind and said this does happen sometimes, where kids make an improvement and then do not need to be admitted after all. He did some labs just to be safe and called Southdale Peds with the results to get their take before letting us go. Her bicarbonate came back normal (which meant she was not dehydrated) but her potassium did come back pretty low. Low potassium can cause muscle weakness and achiness, and also lethargy, which are the main symptoms she has been having the past two days.
So, we took her home (THANKFULLY!) and she slept well through the night, then actually woke up on her own this morning at 8:15 to nurse (this was a major improvement from Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday when we had been having to wake her up every morning and from every nap to eat). She went back down for another 2 1/2 hours, but this made sense because she had been up until 11:30 last night when we were at the ER! She then woke up on her own, ate a good bottle, and lots of baby food bananas. We took her in for her follow-up appointment at 1:00 with Dr. Williams, and she was pleased with Isabel's progress. They did take some additional blood (and because her veins are so tiny, not much bigger than the needle, it was really hard for them to get into one and very painful for Mommy and Daddy to watch!) and ran the same labs as last night, to make sure her levels are getting better, especially the potassium. We just got those results, and the doctor was thrilled to report better numbers for us! Her potassium is back up to 3.3 (it was 2.5 last night, and "normal" is 3.5 and above). They want to see her again on Friday morning, to run the labs again (and hopefully for the final time!) and make sure all levels are staying normal, and especially to ensure she is gaining back some of her weight (that is the biggest thing they are concerned about right now, because even as of today, she was down 1 oz from yesterday. Not a huge loss, but they would like to see it going UP from day to day, not down).
So, it has been a roller-coaster ride for the Christenson family these past 9 days! Thanks for the prayers, they are really helping with Isabel's road to recovery and also with Mommy and Daddy's patience, peace, and calm spirit (especially when some of the medical experiences are a bit frustrating). We really hope that she is almost out of the woods and that these trips to the doctor's office, ER, and hospital are behind us.
We will keep everyone posted on her progress!
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