Marathon doctor day...

Max had all his follow-up appointments Wednesday. We were up at 5 and on the road early to head down to KU med center for his follow-up visit with the surgeon, Dr. Schropp.

This is the surgeon who talked NICU docs through is emergency penrose drain procedure, then performed surgery on Max 3 times himself. Once to explore his bowels and create the ostomy, then to reverse the ostomy and perform his circumcision, and finally to repair his dual inguinal hernias.

Dr. Schropp was THRILLED to see how big, strong and healthy our boy is! Max just grinned at him for the whole exam and it was wonderful. Dr. Schropp was telling his resident just how tiny and sick Max had been and how differently this could all have gone. He says from a surgical standpoint, Max is perfect, healed, and he cleared us to start feeding him rice cereal as soon as his pediatrician give the OK.

Max also weighed in at more than 12 lbs! 6 times his birth weight.

Next we picked up big sister and all of his headed back to the hospital for Max's NICU follow-up. They calculated his weight gain at about an ounce a day, since we left the NICU, which is at the high end of what they hope to see, so, he's doing great. He has NOT grown in height since we left, but they say height is the last thing to catch up.

His bone labs and liver labs were GREATLY improved! So much in fact, that we can stop the medication for his liver levels. His bones are much stronger, but we have to continue on the special formula for a few months longer, probably until after the first of the year.

Since everything is going so well, we also, DO NOT have to follow up with the NICU docs! Just regular well-baby visits to the pediatrician now! WOOHOO! That next well baby exam is coming up later this month. He'll be 6 months!

On the normal childhood front, Max appears to be cutting his first tooth. He's drooly and cranky and the docs confirmed that's likely what's going on. YEAH for normalcy! Let's keep that coming!

We start his therapy with infant/ toddler services next week and they can do the physical therapy with out worries about his bones, which is a real plus. More to come after our first session...