Saturday, March 7, 2009

Medical Updates

First, I would like to say thank you for all of the advice. I am working on trying out all the feeding advice. Unfortunately, Olivia likes everything in her mouth, except food! UGH! With so many of you recommending the Space Saver, I went and got one. A great deal thanks to my aunt! Before I bought ours, Olivia's speech therapist brought hers over with her to see how Olivia would fit in it. She fit so much better in it! Too bad she doesn't eat better in it too!

Olivia had several appointments this week. On Thursday, we saw the speech therapist, audiologist, and ENT. With the speech therapist we discussed Olivia’s recent pneumonia and what may have caused the aspiration. We also talked about Olivia’s eating, or lack of. Then the audiologists checked Olivia’s ears for fluid and did a hearing test. The test showed that Olivia had a small amount of fluid in both ears. That fluid was probably what caused her hearing test to show a mild hearing loss. The ENT decided that it would be a good idea to be proactive and put tubes in Olivia’s ears, since it is quite common for kids with achondroplasia to have ear problems, which can result in hearing loss. Because Olivia just had pneumonia and he wanted to wait until she was healthy for 6 weeks, the surgery won’t be until April 1. While he has her out, he also wants to take a look at her larynx, trachea, and esophagus. Hopefully Olivia can remain healthy until then, so we won’t have to postpone the surgery. Then Olivia saw her pulmonologist on Friday. He was very pleased with the overnight pulse-oximetery study we did at home last Tuesday. He said that her oxygen levels averaged about 95 for the night. Her clinic readings were about the same. He didn’t look into turning down her oxygen, probably because of her recent illness. He always tests her with out her oxygen though. She usually drops very quickly to 80 or below. This time she maintained about 86 for about 10 minutes. The doctor said the goal is to continually see that number increase each month when we are there. She seems to be doing that, so we are making progress! While we were there Olivia also got her RSV shot. One more and we will be done with those for the year! YAY!

Enjoy a few new photos!


Look at all my new teeth!



So happy and flexible!



This little stinker scooted over to the diapers and started pulling them out.



"What?"


"OOH, there's still a few toys left in here for me to toss out!"

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

Wow she's such a cutie! I love how she's getting into things. And all that hair!

Unknown said...

I'm sure Olivia is keeping you very busy! She's such a cutie. i hope she enjoys her new high chair.

Kim said...

Oh wow! Look at all her teeth-maybe once her molars come in she will enjoy steak (hee hee). Her appointments seem to be getting better and better! I love how happy she is! She is just a patoot!

Destini said...

What a cutie! What a great game - the throw things everywhere for mommy and daddy to pick up! I'm so glad that she is doing well!

Greene Family said...

What a cutie! She has such a beautiful smile, and look at all of those teeth! Hopefully, she will start eating more soon! I'm glad to hear that she has been having good doctors' appointments, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that she remains healthy! Simon had tubes put in his ears for the same reason (fluid build up was preventing him from passing his hearing tests), and afterwards, we could really notice the change in his hearing and speech.