Rash Decisions - and Cute Pictures

Karsie seems to be doing a bit better, but she's still bothered by her rash. Doctor Suen called the other day to tell us that the culture grew bacteria, meaning there's stuff to kill. So Karsie has been on antibiotics for a few days. We're pretty sure when she leaks she is getting irritated from a higher acidic concentration because we took her off prilosec. So G.I. needs to decide if she needs to go on again. The rash itself is slightly bigger, but it is healing with the antibiotic cream we put on her. We hope it clears up soon so she feels better.

Developmentally, she's doing well. She's getting very quick at standing up. She can point to her ears when we ask her to, and tomorrow we're working on "nose." Eating is hit and miss. Some days she likes solids. Some days she likes puree. some days she likes nothing. Except chicken. She always likes chicken.

It's About That Time Again...

Karsie had to go to the doctor's today. It isn't a big deal yet, but we're trying to keep on top of a rash that has emerged from her G-Tube site and has really started to bother her more and more each day.

We took Karsie in today to see Dr. Suen, and he prescribed some antibiotics to start while they run the cultures taken from her site to see what kind of infection she has. He's very suspicious of some kinds of bacteria that like to hang around the plastic of tubing like Karsie has. But until we've narrowed some things down he gave Karsie medicine to cover the bases to make sure things don't get worse.

It's hard to tell whether Karsie is scratching her site because she digs at it, or if it hurts her and she's reaching for the spot as a reflex to the pain. Either way, it's very uncomfortable for her. It might also just be a rash that has broken down, so we're also putting neosporin on it to heal that up. We hope this goes away soon so she feels better.

There is good news. Apparently Karsie has grown 3 inches in one week!!! Haha, not really. But her length is 29 inches and last week when she was measured, the nurse had her at 26. It was confirmed today that the nurse last week was an intern and had been measuring it from the wrong spot and not being very careful with her accuracy. Karsie also gained an ounce from last week.

Happy Un-Birthday!

Today, August 22, is Karsie's due date... therefore, as a premie, this is her adjusted birthday! All things are measured against her due date for development until this time next year. And we think she is doing very well for an adjusted 1 year old!!

Update on Issues

Eating and Drinking: This has actually been a good area lately. Karsie has been eating decently, but she has got the hang of drinking...or at least getting the liquid out of the sippy cup and liking it. She then either drinks it and chokes a bit or spits it out. But she likes to get the liquid into her mouth, which is an improvement. Also, even though she has trouble with coughing, she's getting better at doing that...just takes a while when she starts out getting more into her mouth at first.

Doctor Appointment: Karsie went in to get her one-year shots. She did very well. She hated them in the office, but she didn't have any side effects. She weighed in at 18 lbs. 4 oz, which is great growth even though they weigh her with her clothes on. The doctors were amazed at how well she has done. When Michelle was talking to the doctor, Karsie sprint crawled up to him and he got the biggest kick out of that.

Last Night: Ugh! We have never experienced having to get up in the middle of the night to clean up vomit, but we probably have something we do that most parents do not experience. Last night, we woke up to Karsie whimpering. We usually let her go, but this was a different whimper, so we got up to check it out. We found that during the night her medical port (where we put in medicine from a syringe) popped open and all of her stomach juices plus any food she was supposed to get during the night poured out all over the crib...all over her...all over her blankets....everywhere! And of course this stuff happens at 3 in the morning.

Update 8-14-10

A little delay in the San Diego birthday pictures. We realized that we really don't have a lot of pictures as we were busy doing things. So if you have cute pictures send them our way so we can post them.

Karsie has been doing very well lately. We are completely onto Pediasure now and Karsie is doing very well with it. We're hoping it really helps with weight gain. Not that it is an accurate measurement, but she feels much heavier at times.

Karsie has also completely changed her eating desires.....again. A couple of weeks ago she was eating puree foods exclusively. She would eat a ton. Now, she will barely take a bite, but she'll wolf down solid food like chicken bits or crackers. We are hoping for more of a balance, but she doesn't seem to be listening.

A bit of good news: She had her first day of really good drinking the other day. We gave her some water and she drank it quickly. She got so good at it she took it from our hands and drank herself. For those of you who don't know she is behind on her eating habits and WAY behind on drinking. Since she's had a G-Tube, she's never had to drink. So we have been busy trying to introduce drinking to her and trying to have her associate drinking with positive feelings. She also coughs a lot when drinking like she doesn't quite close her windpipe. We're hoping she grows out of that soon, but when she took the sippy the other day she started off coughing a bit, but she got the hang of it after a while and wasn't coughing as much.

We're about to start work again this coming week. Kevin is full time and Michelle is job sharing with another teacher. So Karsie will go to Auntie Becky's for 2-3 times per week. We're so lucky to have people we trust watching her.

Our next step in Karsie's ultimate closure goal is coming up. We're going into G.I. for another appointment in September and we're going to try and schedule an appointment with Dr. Gossman (plastic surgery) during that time. Hopefully Karsie will be big enough to start expanding her stomach. We have decided that while compression wrapping is the less surgical route, it really doesn't do as well with G-Tube babies. We started trying to wrap Karsie's omphalocele a while ago and she leaked so much during that time. We may try again when she is not leaking, but we think we're ready to just subscribe to the tissue expanders. We hope to have some news on that front soon.

Til then...

Copy Cat

Just a quick update in addition to the video:

Karsie is still doing very well. She is standing on everything and getting around pretty well.

Today was the first day since she has been born that there was a one step process to making her food. We have either had to pump and freeze, mix formula, mix formula and thaw breast milk, or thaw breast milk and add other stuff. Tonight she gets straight formula. Now to get her drinking...

Update 8-4-10

Greetings from Bakersfield!

The Turner Family has been doing well since our last post. Michelle has been busy with her partner teacher getting their classroom ready. They are team teaching at another school in the district, so Michelle has had to move all of her supplies to a different school. Kevin gets to play Mr. Mom during that time.

It has taken us a while to get back into the swing of things not being on the road, but we're close to being there. Just in time for school to start and having to learn a whole new routine again.

Karsie has been doing quite well since her fussy stage. We're right in the thick of weaning her onto the Pediasure, and she's back and forth with handling it. Since our last post, we've given her the same dosage. We think she got stopped up a bit (well, we know she did) because of the new formula switch. Once she had a few days to cope, she was back to normal. She's been very content. Yesterday we changed the dosage again. We're giving her 75% formula to 25% breast milk. In a few days, we'll be to 100% and done with the breast milk probably for good unless she needs to go back or doesn't handle something along the way. Either way, it's been good to have her take the milk Michelle worked so hard getting, but it's a little sad to be done with it if that makes sense. On to the next.

Karsie had a fussy day today at times, and at times she was as happy as she's ever been. Her belly's a little distended, so we're pretty sure this is just the next round of reaction to the formula switch.

We should have some pictures up of our San Diego party soon. Just thought we'd put up an update for now.