Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Race is On!








Zac and Naoh had a blast at their annual AWANA Grand Prix. They both made mustangs. Made it easier on Dad! Of course, Noah's had to be black and Zac's had to be John Deere green. ;o)

The Journey Continues


Naomi had a check up with Dr. Dick Friday (3/20/09) and I went prepared with lots of questions. She had been seen by a nutritionist last month because of concern with her eating habits. She will eat from now til tomorrow if you let her. I have seen her refuse food only 2 times in the year and a half she's been with us and that has been peas both times. Dr. Dick put her on Zoloft 7 months ago to stop her from screaming for the food on other people's plates. I mean SCREAMING, banging her head on her highchair tray, extremely over-the-top reaction. It was pretty scary. The Zoloft controls this, but she still seems unable to tell when her body has taken in enough food. According to the nutritionist she is getting way more calories than she needs and the balance of proteins, fats, carbs, etc is great and this is with me putting a lid on how much food she eats per meal. However, she has never had an ounce of fat on her. Her little ribs and breast bone stick out and her belly is distended like a malnurished child. The nutritionist suggested checking her metabolism (not an easy thing to do Dr. Dick said) and I asked him to check if she is not absorbing the nutrients in the foods she is eating (very easy to do, he said).

Then he proceeded to do the routine check up and would you believe he found a heart murmur?! He gave me an order for an EKG and they will be calling with details on the echo-cardiogram as soon as they get it set up. He then order a total of 16 different labs to run to try to answer all my questions. This poor kid! :( We do need answers, though. I hope this gives us some.

We also agreed to up her Clonidine a little to try to control some new behavior issues that have developed since the last time we saw him. She will play in and eat her feces and pick her nose inside and out til it bleeds. All pretty common for FAS kiddos, but not always easy or fun to deal with as a parent.

On a brighter note, she may be ready to graduate out of Physical Therapy! What amazing progress she has made in a year! She is a fighter and I'm excited to see where God will take her in her life. She is so sweet and loving and gentle. She loves her baby sister and spends lots of time holding her hand and smiling at her. What fun!