G-tube

We met with the pediatrician today and got all of our questions answered! We are going to go ahead with the G-tube. We are very confident that this is exactly what Olivia needs right now. The doc is going to call in the referral to Peoria and she estimated that Olivia should have her G-tube within the next month or so! Hopefully this will help with her respiratory issues and she become a much healthier little girl!

We are also going to try to get in to see a Pulmonologist and an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat doc). The pulmonologist can hopefully help with Olivia's chronic lung disease and respiratory problems. The ENT can take a look at her vocal chords - she's got the most raspy cry - which is most likely associated to the amount of time she's been intubated, etc... Also, since she is on her 4th ear infection, it's getting closer to the time when we start thinking about tubes. It would be awesome to get them put in at the same time as the G-tube - the pediatrician's looking into that.

But that's not all...when it rains, it pours. Olivia's INR is out of whack again, maybe. On our home machine I got 2 readings of 7.0 and "greater than 7.5" Too high. The doctor's office got 3.5, which is on the high end of okay. The hospital lab here (totally unreliable) got 4.9. We're waiting to hear back about what dose, if any, of coumadin to give her tonight and will most likely go to Peoria tomorrow for labs.

And...Olivia woke up this morning with petechiae all over her forehead and torso. This is just a fancy term for little purple dots, which are kind of like little broken blood vessels. Olivia's had this in the past, but not since July or August when her platelets were low. So, to the hospital for labs and sure enough, her platelets are low. Don't know why. Waiting to hear back about this, too. I'm just praying that it's something simple and not her heart or her bone marrow doing wierd things. Keep you posted...