Monday, December 12, 2011

Well Child Visit/Some Good Days/Phone Calls to Make


Last Tuesday, Nolan had his four-year-old well child visit.Yes, he turned four in August... but insurance mandates that physicals be 365 days apart, so they have been slipping farther and farther away from his actual birthday!

The little guy is doing well. The vital stats:

Age: 4 years, 4 months
Height: 39.5"
Weight: 32 pounds
Clothing Size: 3T

He's meeting all developmental targets, and at this appointment his nose and ears were clear. His lungs were a little "wet" sounding, but he has been coughing a lot with reflux lately. His weight percentile is down a bit from last year. At his peak, we had managed to get him to the 24th percentile. Now he's in the 14th - still great, but obviously we keep a sharp eye on his weight and supplement with DuoCal in yogurt when he stops eating solid foods. His height is great - 22nd percentile.

The rest of last week was wonderful. His reflux seemed to settle a bit, and he had a clear nose and ears. We don't often see him "clear" anymore, and the difference in energy level between a healthy Nolan and a refluxing Nolan is astonishing. When he has energy, he doesn't know what to do with it and is absolutely HYPER.

Saturday night, he complained of a headache. He was in a lot of distress, so I put him to bed with Tylenol, and left the C-Pap off. With a full-face mask, we don't take any risks if he might get sick in the night.

He woke up in the morning and was fine, but coughing and gagging a lot. We're now measuring the "good days" in shorter and shorter time increments.  Reflux, welcome back.

We went to the Christmas Tree Farm and Nolan was extremely difficult the entire time. His energy was gone and he wanted nothing to do with the process.


And then there is the sinusitis. His nose is running like a leaky hose again. At least his ears are clear.


He almost never naps, and he slept on the way home. We were hoping he'd get a good nap in, but he woke as soon as we got home from the tree farm.


Mr. Cranky spent the rest of the day watching cartoons. We left the C-Pap off again last night, so that we don't exacerbate the reflux (in Nolan's case, the blowing air just forces the infected material in his sinuses into his lungs and ears). Hopefully this will be a short bout and he'll be "clear" again soon.


In the meantime, I have to call the pediatric surgeon today to set up an appointment. I just hope that we get an appointment on a day without snow - I have no desire to drive to Rochester in a blizzard!


2 comments:

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Gunnar was looking over my shoulder as I read the post (earlier today) and we both lamented at how sad Nolan looks - praying he feels better soon!

Julie

Kyla said...

I'm so sorry to hear he is struggling again!

KayTar's motility med ran out over the weekend and she was out of automatic refills and I'm on pins and needles waiting for it to be called in...don't want things to get bad again!! I got sick of waiting on the GI clinic (which is terrible about call backs, ect) and emailed her ped about it, so hopefully she'll have it today!