Worms

Emma and daddy were out gardening today and we found out she is not found of worms. He dug several and tried to let her touch them. She wasn't having any of that nonsense. Oh well, maybe later...

Xray results

Dr. Prussin called this morning to report that the Xrays did confirm the subglottic stenosis, but he is unable to put a significance or grade on it, and he wants us to have a referral at Wake Forest. We're going to hold off for a few weeks and see how she does with the Prevacid, and consider going for the diagnostics in several weeks. We discussed it with the pediatrician as well, and he was a big proponent of finding out as much as we can about the condition and severity, but he supported our decision not to jump the gun and go Tuesday like they had originally scheduled. Since she's not a critical case, he was comfortable with us waiting a little longer. Shoot, she's had it all her life, what's a few weeks going to do??!!?!? Dr. Prussin agreed as well, but said he'd like us to go no later than a few weeks from now.

Anyhow, that's where we stand- We're still thinking on it and considering our options, and deciding what direction to go in. The thought of general anesthesia is intimidating, but at this point, that is the only thing that will tell us definitively how severely her airway is constricted, and maybe give us some idea of the likelihood that she will grow out of it or the chance that anything significant will come of it. Oh, and we may have the option of going to UVA rather than Wake Forest... we'll see what happens.

doctor's day...

Well, today was chock full of tons of excitement for all of us. I say that somewhat sarcastically... we started off the morning with an early appointment with the pediatrician- Emma weighed in at 18lbs 4oz, which, although it seems like a tiny gain to us, the doctor was satisfied with. We reviewed diet stuff and he thoroughly listened to her lungs and throat, still trying to determine the cause of her sometimes raspy breathing. We got a vaccine booster (sigh) and headed out the door.

Soon after was our appointment with Dr. Prussin, the ear/nose/throat specialist. We had specifically scheduled the appointment time with Emma's schedule in mind, and unfortunately when we got there, we were informed that the doctor was running 45 minutes late. We tried to pick up a quick lunch, but were constantly interrupted thinking that we would be called soon, then not. We finally got in to an exam room and Dr. Prussin got a brief history of the problem and we showed him the two videos we had taken at times when Emma was at her maximum raspiness. He decided to scope her nose and pharynx, a non-painful but also non-pleasant procedure. Luckily it was over pretty quickly, and he determined that she was a possible case of subglottic stenosis. Because of the crying she did during the procedure, he couldn't see as thoroughly as he wanted, so he followed up with a set of X-rays of her throat to be able to actually measure the area. We had to go to the hospital for that, and although it was not at all painful or unpleasant, I think Emma had come to the end of her rope, and it was very stressful for us all. She recovered quickly from it, and we were soon back on the road to drop off the x-rays and do a quick grocery stop before finally heading home.

It was a very long, emotional, and stressful day for us all, and we were so glad to get home and unwind a bit with a nice walk just before dinner. Emma has been in great spirits and as full of energy as ever since we got back home. She went to bed great and is sleeping quietly now, thank goodness!!

We're expecting to hear the results of the xrays tomorrow at some point, and that will help determine the next course of action for us. We have options of doing a more thorough internal exam under anesthesia either here or at Wake Forrest, and depending on all the diagnostic results, specialized corrective surgery.

Greg and I feel at this point that we're probably getting into the overkill area, that this is probably all a bit unnecessary for something that isn't getting worse, hasn't ever caused problems, and only in certain circumstances makes her breathe noisy. She makes no noise when she sleeps or is at rest breathing easily, and it surely doesn't make her winded or slow her down! She has never coughed from it or had any respiratory distress.

We also have discussed with the pediatrician the possibility of gastric reflux disease in Emma, since she seems to fill up so fast at meals, and we have now learned that GERD is actually somewhat of a predisposing factor for this stenosis. Dr. Prussin did tell us that Emma did have some possible evidence of GERD in her pharynx as well. Before we do anything drastic, we are putting Emma on a trial of Prevacid to see if it not only helps with her eating and weight gain, but also if it has any effect on her breathing.

Anyway, we'll be hearing tomorrow about the xrays, and that will either tell us that there is no functional stenosis and we'll search elsewhere, or that there is a mild stenosis and we can either investigate it further or we will decide to try the Prevacid for a few weeks.

It was a ton to take in today, and I'm glad we all survived it. I never knew how hard it would be to deal with any health issues in our baby- it is incredibly stressful and emotional!! We'll post again when we have more information!

We swear she likes to do this stuff!

Daddy was vacuuming today and Emma likes to help. She usually pushes around the canister part or moves stuff out of the way. We shortened up the tube for her and now she is a vacuuming fool. She is in the other room right now trying to reassemble it to the beater brush part. The best part is she doesn't need it on to feel like she is vacuuming so no extra coin to AEP!

Emma at work

We were out checking on the calves and water and Emma carried the fork like a pro and then tried moving some gravel with it.

We've had some nice weather lately, other than yesterday which was like February again! We've been out in the garden quite a bit, here are some more recent pictures:

The little hippie chick;

Emma *loooooved* the carrot cake beaters!!!
Apparently I've been wearing my purse wrong all these years...
Emma unpacking and sorting some cute new clothes-
Emma was being so silly, wearing her tub on her head and running from room to room giggling!

Here are a few cute pictures from today- it was a hot day but *incredibly* windy! Emma and Mommy did a few errands before lunch, had a long extended nap, played outside before dinner, and had a pretty decent bedtime!

Emma in her balloon dress

I caught this one at a funny time, it ended up looking like she was posing for a modelling shoot or something... I get a big kick out of the pretty little dress and the big ka-lunk-a-lunk shoes! And how's this for some crazy hair?!?!
Showing off one of her cute new outfits, Daddy says she looks like she got "caught in the act!" She was really just playing with her wipes before we went out for errands... she was a great girl today!! :)