Jive Turkey!

I am more than pleased to announce that Andi Bean now weighs a whooping 15 pounds, 2.5 ounces!  She's nearing the Butterball status I've been aiming for... It's amazing how incredibly difficult it has been in almost 14 months, to get her from 5.6 pounds, to 15.2 pounds.  Reeedonkulous!!!! 

Today, we saw the g-tube surgeon, as the feeding clinic pushed that leak back at him and said, *insert sassy voice here*, 'nuh-uh, this ain't going to fly, turkey!'  So, he checked the device, again, and blew up the balloon to 6 ml.  He wanted me to do a bolus and try to recreate what we'd typically experience.  I pointed out that her bolus takes an hour.  He said, 'speed it up, or you can certainly stay here that long'.  I sped it up, then, thinking about it more, I sped it up again.  I took her normal volume and delivered it in half the time.  Wowza.  In any case, I sat her up and it leaked.  He blew up the balloon to 7 ml, and had me lay her at an angle, it didn't leak.  So, he suggested that we relook at positioning for feeds.  I pointed out that feeding clinic wanted her in her high chair 2-3 times a day, for oral feeds, in conjunction with boluses (which is really a time-savor), and he said that in order to get the leak to stop, leaning her back during the feed will take the pressure off the front and keep the formula in the stomach.  It sounds like a crock o' shnizzle if you ask me... all g-tubes leak... but when the kid is sitting upright, or heaven forbid, standing? The g-tube will leak?  This is such a disaster.

However, I did learn that Andi tolerated the feed speed up. If I could cut her meal times down... imagine how much more time we'd have to work on therapy, or simply have more fun not being tethered to the tube!  I'm going to work on getting it sped up.  This feed, rate:  160, dose: 107. She was getting a rate of 97, dose 107... so this will be A LOT faster.  The surgeon told me how big her stomach is... it's a lot bigger than I thought!  I will have to watch out for gas though.  He seemed to think that she swallowed a lot of air and filled her stomach full of air.  That might have been due to her ten steady minutes of shrieking crying, as she no longer likes Dr's -- at all.  Sadly, Andi freaks out around any Dr's anymore. She just doesn't like them.  Considering all she's been through, I honestly can't blame her.  There are times when I feel she's been just a science experiment! (insert colorful monologue here about the g-tube!)

The other thing we have to report was her audiology appointment was this week.  They put her hearing aid in and tested her good ear.  They would talk to her from places she could not see, and she responded a lot more than she did in January when she was tested last.  I didn't get a report of how she did, but I think they agree with me that she can hear a lot more than originally thought. 

Andi's new overused expression of the week is 'All Done!'  I'm not kidding. She's been hearing "All Done!" since I can remember.  All those blood draws, or shots over this past year, that was what I told her when they were through, "All Done!"  Andi is really working that expression a lot now... although, I'm not sure she really understands what she's saying... but, she's definitely saying it all sass-o-frass!

She's so funny.  Just a little character.  She often just wants to make people laugh. So she'll do raspberries and try to get people to laugh or respond.  She's a little comedian, speaking her jive turkey, and finally growing into a Butterball Bean.