Really? Again??

Ok...this is going to be a quick post to keep everyone updated. Many of you may already know that Charlotte gave us a little scare recently. Her color has gradually gotten worse and worse over the course of the last week and yesterday when I picked her up at daycare it was about its worst. I hooked her up to the sat monitor and low and behold....64% Yikes. I texted Dr. Sami's nurse (bless her for giving me her cell!) and within an hour we had home medical people at our house setting us up with home oxygen. Her sats responded wonderfully, much to our relief, but keeping a nasal cannula on a 10 month old is no easy task!

Today....

8:30 chest xray at the hospital

9:15 appointment with Dr. Sami followed by an echo (gulp!)

11:30 appointment with our newest doctor, Dr. Will (Wilfredo Veloira), a pulmonologist

First things first, Charlotte's echo looked great. The valves that were placed in January are still intact with no identifiable leaks. There hasn't been any real growth of her right ventricle, but thats no real surprise at this point. We knew that growth would take time, and in all honesty, she has been fighting so many other bugs lately that she really hasn't had much for reserves. We were just thrilled that everything was working the way we planned! Maybe now I'll be able to sleep at night!

So now to the pulmonologist. Today was the first time that we have met Dr. Will. Nothing like adding another doctor into the mix! After Dr. Sami looked at Charlotte's chest x-ray he thought that we could benefit from his opinion. On the x-ray they see some things that lead them to believe that he lungs have never really fully recovered after being on bypass....more than likely do to the havoc that RSV had on them. There are still some areas of inflammation that we need to get settled down before we see her sats go back up. I was concerned that these might be permanent changes within the lung, but they assured me that everything should work its way back to normal given some time.

The plan? Since this seems to be something more respiratory related (so much junk still going around) we're going to do the following...

Inhaled steroids x 2 weeks

Antibiotic x 5 days (snotty nose/red ears)

Oxygen at nights for at least a week, during the day depending on her sats

Increase her diuretic to hopefully help the lungs recover more quickly

Follow up with Dr. Will in 2 weeks, Dr Sami in 2 months

Our life is NuTs as always, but we are reassured by todays visits. Hopefully the interventions above will get us on the right track and we'll have a happy, healthy little Chuck in no time! Thanks for all of the prayers! Now this mommy is going to take a nap.