OH Happy Day!!

I brought Elise to Texas Children's Hospital today for her liver clinic appt with Dr. Fishman. It went very well!  Her weight is now 11 lb 1 oz, up from 10 lb 4 oz three weeks ago. She's still just in the 3rd percentile for weight though, so the dietician advised me to start giving her 3 mL of pure coconut oil or MCT oil daily. That will add lots of calories and fat to her daily intake which should help with weight gain. The dietician also says we can start introducing solid foods like rice cereal and fruits; however, at this point it's mostly for development and taste, not nutrition. Elise still needs to be taking in at least 30-32 oz Pregestimil formula (24 cal/ oz) daily. 

And Elise's liver panel still looks wonderful...even better than 3 weeks ago!  Her conjugated bilirubin level remains at 0.0, which is as good as it gets! Her AST, Alk Phos, Albumin, and indirect bili are all down also, which is great!  Her ALT is slightly up, but not too bad, and then the lab made an error and didn't draw her GGT, which is one of the values we've been watching very carefully....so that is really frustrating.

Here's Elise's actual liver panel for anyone interested:
AST: 113          (normal range 20-60)
ALT: 83            (normal range 6-50)
ALK Phos: 364   (normal range 110-320)
Albumin: 4.4     (normal range 2.8-5.0)
Conjugated Bili: 0.0  (normal range <0.5)

We are still waiting on her vitamin levels and some other blood tests which were sent off. 

But...like Dr. Fishman says...looking at the patient is just as important as looking at the numbers, if not more important than the numbers...and Elise looks GREAT.  Actually, she looks AMAZING to me!!  Really, he said that we can rest assured that her liver is working just fine right now. Her color is pink, her tummy is less distended, there doesn't seem to be any fluid build up or ascites, she has no bleeding or vomiting, she's eating very well, and she is gaining weight.

After liver clinic, we went to see Elise's regular pediatrician to get her second dose of the RSV vaccine.  Hopefully, this vaccine will help to keep her from getting sick when she starts day care!  I'm happy to announce that Elise has been medically cleared by her GI/ liver doc and her pediatrician to go to day care, which means I can go back to work!!  I am being offered the opportunity to return to my job at UHC, and I have pretty much accepted!!  I have a potential start date of March 12, 2012!  This will go a long way towards restoring normalcy to my life and to our family routine, and for that, I am truly grateful. 

Oh happy day!!