Bushey/Wright Family: Progress and drama

Madeleine spent all day at the hospital and her doctors were extremely pleased with her progress. She weighed in at a whoppign 12 lbs 2 oz, meaning that she's gained over 2 lbs in the last three weeks. For those keeping score at home, our goal is 2 lbs every month-- yup, we finally beat a weight gain goal!

That's the best news but the other news is also good. We learned that the pulmonary hypertension was slightly elevated (nothing major-- about 35 %-- should be 25-20%). The doctors weren't concerned and in fact thought it made sense as they hadn't increased her medicine dosages despite her growth spurt. They readjusted the medicine and we think we'll see a decrease in the percentage next time we go back. Madeleine met with the team of GI doctors and they were also pleased with the weight gain. It was their first time seeing Madeleine (weird isn't it?) and they did stress that its important we continue this weight gain and also really amp up on the physical therapy. It sounds strange but makes sense: as Madeleine gains core body strength, her GI tract will strengthen and will function more effectively. We've been doing some activities but haven't pushed Madeleine ... until now. Coach Bushey (that would be me) is on the scene and Ms. Madeleine's going to be in two a-days for the foreseeable future. I expect the Dr. will be amazed by the progress she'll see in a month.

Also-- I want to post a few pictures. Per Will's request, the first two are for comparison's sake-- the first is a picture taken during Madeleine's first week of life. If you remember, my wedding ring fit loosely on her wrist. The second picture was taken this morning and its a good demonstration of Madeleine's growth. The final picture demonstrates that Madeleiene knows which basketball team is going to be ready for March Madness... :) Even if you're not a Spartan fan, you gotta admit-- that's a great smile! Check out all of the January pictures at this link.

One more quick note-- as the title indicates, there was some drama associated with the hospital visit. In addition to meeting with three different doctors yesterday, Madeleine also made a trip to the X-Ray lab to replace her feeding tube. Her last tube had come out of her intestines and was placing food directly into her stomach. Since they're not convinced that madeleine can keep food in her stomach and protect her airway, they wanted to replace the tube. The tube was placed easily late Wednesday and didn't appear to have any problems. However, when they got home yesterday, the feeding pump couldn't push food through the tube. We called the hospital and at first were told that nothing could be done last night but since Madeleine can't go without food or liquid for a full night, we needed to bring her to the ER for admittance into the Cardiac ICU. (Madeleine has to go to the ICU when admitted due to her Pulmonary Hypertension and the fact she is on a ventilator.) If you know my wife, you know that she doesn't always take the first answer she gets when she disagrees (and she had my full support on this issue.) She ended up finally reaching a Fellow in the radiology lab and convinced him that it made more sense to place the tube last night rather than admit a perfectly healthy but medically fragile patient to an ICU because a tube needed to be fixed. It ended up taking about five minutes last night and the fellow was able to move the tube and get rid of a kink in the line (they use X-Ray to see the line.) We were obviously ecstatic to avoid the ER and ICU last night.