Day 43

In one week Seton Blaine Oliver will be ONE! God is awesome and has truly blessed us with this sweet boy!

We spent the morning at Dr. H’s office and we now have a new game plan for Seton’s button. The skin around his button no longer looked infected to Dr. H, only very irritated and broken down. We removed the current button (1.0 cm long) that he has and put in a different one, the new is a 0.5 cm longer. It is the old button (1.5 cm long) we had when his tummy was still swollen from his surgery.  We took the 1.0cm one out and cleaned it really well, then taped it to the right side of his tummy. We are going to check his skin for allergies to this type of plastic. There are several different brands of feeding buttons on the market. So for the next 1-3 days Seton’s will have 2 buttons on his tummy. I am supposed to remove the tape and check the site every 24 hours and note and changes in the skin. Since the new button is a little bit longer we are expecting it to leak more, hopefully not causing any more skin break down or irritation.

Then we discussed blood work… Seton’s Phenobarbital levels are still in a good range so we do not have to increase his dosage! Yippee! That made me very happy. They also tested his Vitamin D levels and they were very low. So we are starting him on some vitamin D drops for the next few months. Dr. H said that when your vitamin D is low it causes the muscles to be more spastic and have higher tone. Like I said yesterday, they did not get enough blood to do his allergy testing so we will go back in a week or 2 and get blood drawn for that testing.

We also discussed Seton’s lack of sleep over the past few weeks and he gave us a prescription for a medicine that slows down the sympathetic nervous system to help him relax and sleep better.

 Today's prayer request is for everything to work as Dr. H planned and that we find out the true cause of all his button trouble. 

Overall it was a good visit! I promised some pictures of his battle wounds from giving blood.

~Shawna~

Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me;
   fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take up shield and armor;
   arise and come to my aid.
3 Brandish spear and javelin
   against those who pursue me.
Say to me,
   “I am your salvation.”

Psalms 35:1