Audra had her follow-up appointment with GI on Friday. And I loved what the doctor had to say! She told me that usually in the situation that Audra is in, with her extremely small size and endoscopy findings, they would recommend to begin tube feedings with a special elemental formula.
BUT...
Since Audra seems to being doing ok, loves to eat, and doesn't seem to have any terrible food related symptoms (besides lack of gaining good weight) she is willing to give her the benefit of time. Time to see if she can have some decent catch up weight on her own. Audra will have her weight checked every two weeks to make sure she IS gaining some amount consistently and the doctor would like to see what happens with her inflammatory markers (the bloodwork levels that were soooo sky high while she was in the hospital) once she is off the antibiotics. After a few months of documenting weights and bloodwork levels Audra will have another endoscopy/colonoscopy.
So she's got all summer to eat whatever she wants, to her little hearts content. And this girl DOES
love to eat...ANYTHING!
Hopefully her numbers over the next couple months will make the doctors happy and her stomach and small intestine will begin to heal some on their own.
Thank goodness for mirrors in the exam rooms at the doctor's office:
I have been looking forward to taking Audra's picture with the panda statue outside of the hospital forever...unfortunately she was afraid of the statue and not too excited about sitting near it:
I'm so glad to read that Audra continues to do well. I hope that she eats, gains weight, and stays healthy. I'm so happy that you are able to return (mostly) to a normal lifestyle. Routine can be pretty wonderful, eh?
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