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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The rest of the intake visit

Let me first apologize for taking SO long to update! It's been a whole week since my last entry, and I haven't even updated the rest of the visit!

The rest of our week at Loma Linda was good. We met with one of the transplant surgeons as a general consult. He reviewed Gabriella's case, got to meet her and gave us a few bits of information. The best part of that visit was when he said "The easy part is the surgery". Which, in all reality, is the truth. It's the preparation and the after-care that are the difficult parts. But remind me of this as I sit for 6 hours waiting for my baby to get out of surgery, will you?

We had a day of clinic, which is a practice we will do twice a week post-transplant. It is first come, first serve, so getting there at 8am is wise. You meet with a doctor, nutritionist and have bloodwork done. They decide at that time if anything else needs to be done. The nutritionist told us Gabriella is technically mal-nourished. Her height works against her. Being over 44" tall and only 37.1 pounds, it gives her a BMI of under 13, not even touching the curve set for healthy. She gave me a list of things to try, and it is my goal to have her at least on the curve by our next visit. Adding whipping cream to cereal or milk, oils to her mac n cheese, and pushing high calorie foods. Unfortunately, her body is working so hard to maintain a normal blood flow that she is burning calories quickly, therefore not able to keep weight on. So basically, I have to give her all the foods I avoid. LOL.... They drew blood. Twice. The first time they didn't draw one test they needed and had to go back in for more. Poor, brave girl. The doctor also ordered a chest X-ray since Gabriella's cough is back full force. We didn't get the results before we left, but just got them this past week. I'll post more on that next. We go back in a month for another clinic, and will do this monthly until transplant time.

We drove home that day after clinic, with a lot to think about and prepare for. We stopped for lunch at Bob's Big Boy only to be the recipients of an amazing reminder of God's angels in our lives. After we ate, I took Gabriella to the bathroom while Paul waited for the bill. When we came out, he was up front waiting for us. Turns out, a frequent customer of theirs paid for our meal, unknowing of our unique family situation. We told the waitress about what a blessing it was and where we were heading from, and gave the manager and waitress Gabriella cards and pins. We gave them an extra for that loving man that blessed us that day, and I hope he gets it.

2 comments:

Candace said...

Hi! I came across your blog after seeing your story on the news and am very amazed by your braveness! Your little girl is so sweet and I wish her the best of luck, she has an awesome mom! I have a 3 year old boy who is a tiny thing and has been going to a GI for his weight. They put him on something called Duocal that is a weight gaining supplement. It is available otc bit will probably need to be special ordered. Just thought I'd pass on a little help :)

Corey~living and loving said...

Thanks for the update. ♥ I hope that you are successful in putting some weight on your girl. :) I'll be rooting for you and her.