Neurologist Appt, and Reno's Earthquakes
Ceili's neurologist appointment this afternoon went really well! Her neurologist is warm and friendly, and he seemed to really enjoy talking and playing with her. He also seemed to take a proactive approach toward determining if she's got any underlying medical problems contributing to some of what's going on with her, which makes me VERY happy.
She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz (fully clothed, with shoes & her pacifier hooked to her shirt), and she's 22-1/2" long. This is pretty much exactly where she fell on the growth chart a month ago: 3rd percentile and 5th percentile for her age, respectively. So at least she's maintaining her proportions, even if she *is* still teensy.
We didn't get any new answers today, but we *did* get a lot of first steps in a lot of good directions. Dr. Rodriguez did a physical exam, and he's going to get back to us by the end of the week to schedule imaging to check out the area around her sacral dimple to check her spine and the soft tissue in the area. He's going to try to get a look at her gut, so hopefully we'll get some insight into her bowel troubles while we're seeing if there are any problems involving this concerning dimple.
Because of C's nasal congestion, which has been an ongoing problem since her birth, Dr. Rodriguez is sending her to a pediatric ENT who specializes in infants. Although her CT scan when she was a few days old showed no obstructions, she clearly has *something* blocking her nasal passages, so he's hoping this doctor will be able to shed some light on that.
He noticed a white spot of some sort that was blocking his view of the back of her eyes during her eye exam, and we've been a little concerned with what seems to be some difficulty for her in focusing on faces, so he's also sending her to a pediatric ophthalmologist to do a full, thorough eye exam and see if she's got lens abnormalities or other vision problems.
Finally, because we are *still* waiting to hear back from the Early Intervention program about getting genetic testing done on Ceili, he gave us a lab order for a chromosomal screening. The test will likely take a month or longer to come back, so we might as well get it done now instead of waiting for the program to get back to us to schedule an intake appointment (they do developmental screening and genetic consults for kids who are demonstrating delays in growth, developmental milestones, speech problems, etc).
So basically, we have no new information, but we've got 4 more appointments to schedule and blood work to do, and then we'll have more information and know if she's a healthy baby experiencing normal problems that just happen to fit the pattern of my brother's kids' problems, or if she's got a chromosomal anomaly and related health issues to a much smaller extent than they do, which will let us know if I'm a carrier for this defect, which will affect decisions about whether or not we have any more kids, her future healthcare (i.e. what we can shrug off and what may require a closer look), etc.
I am VERY encouraged after this appointment. I feel like we're on the right path now to find out what's causing our little girl's discomforts, and when we know the cause, we can start to take care of her so she is as happy and healthy as possible. :o)
*****
...Oh yeah, and the earthquakes continue to shake Reno. Asher says they're talking about the possibility of a 6.0 or greater in the next ten days. Things could get exciting! ;o)
(In case anyone didn't hear, after ~2 months of microquakes, Reno had a 4.7 on Saturday night that we were able to feel shaking our couch in our living room down in Carson City. Rather than having one big quake followed by a series of aftershocks, which is typical, we've had a whole slew of minor quakes that are, overall, growing in intensity as time goes on, which seems to indicate a bigger event on the horizon. It was the lead story on CNN.com on Sunday!)
She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz (fully clothed, with shoes & her pacifier hooked to her shirt), and she's 22-1/2" long. This is pretty much exactly where she fell on the growth chart a month ago: 3rd percentile and 5th percentile for her age, respectively. So at least she's maintaining her proportions, even if she *is* still teensy.
We didn't get any new answers today, but we *did* get a lot of first steps in a lot of good directions. Dr. Rodriguez did a physical exam, and he's going to get back to us by the end of the week to schedule imaging to check out the area around her sacral dimple to check her spine and the soft tissue in the area. He's going to try to get a look at her gut, so hopefully we'll get some insight into her bowel troubles while we're seeing if there are any problems involving this concerning dimple.
Because of C's nasal congestion, which has been an ongoing problem since her birth, Dr. Rodriguez is sending her to a pediatric ENT who specializes in infants. Although her CT scan when she was a few days old showed no obstructions, she clearly has *something* blocking her nasal passages, so he's hoping this doctor will be able to shed some light on that.
He noticed a white spot of some sort that was blocking his view of the back of her eyes during her eye exam, and we've been a little concerned with what seems to be some difficulty for her in focusing on faces, so he's also sending her to a pediatric ophthalmologist to do a full, thorough eye exam and see if she's got lens abnormalities or other vision problems.
Finally, because we are *still* waiting to hear back from the Early Intervention program about getting genetic testing done on Ceili, he gave us a lab order for a chromosomal screening. The test will likely take a month or longer to come back, so we might as well get it done now instead of waiting for the program to get back to us to schedule an intake appointment (they do developmental screening and genetic consults for kids who are demonstrating delays in growth, developmental milestones, speech problems, etc).
So basically, we have no new information, but we've got 4 more appointments to schedule and blood work to do, and then we'll have more information and know if she's a healthy baby experiencing normal problems that just happen to fit the pattern of my brother's kids' problems, or if she's got a chromosomal anomaly and related health issues to a much smaller extent than they do, which will let us know if I'm a carrier for this defect, which will affect decisions about whether or not we have any more kids, her future healthcare (i.e. what we can shrug off and what may require a closer look), etc.
I am VERY encouraged after this appointment. I feel like we're on the right path now to find out what's causing our little girl's discomforts, and when we know the cause, we can start to take care of her so she is as happy and healthy as possible. :o)
*****
...Oh yeah, and the earthquakes continue to shake Reno. Asher says they're talking about the possibility of a 6.0 or greater in the next ten days. Things could get exciting! ;o)
(In case anyone didn't hear, after ~2 months of microquakes, Reno had a 4.7 on Saturday night that we were able to feel shaking our couch in our living room down in Carson City. Rather than having one big quake followed by a series of aftershocks, which is typical, we've had a whole slew of minor quakes that are, overall, growing in intensity as time goes on, which seems to indicate a bigger event on the horizon. It was the lead story on CNN.com on Sunday!)