Good Preliminary Results!

We spent nearly the whole day with the oncology appointment and got some good preliminary results! Todd and I are extremely relieved, though we still have to hear back from the oncologist himself.

Walking into the pediatric oncology clinic was a difficult thing to do this morning. I have to say, never in a million years did I ever imagine having to take my child to test for cancer. They were incredibly warm and comforting there though which helped a lot. After the traditional heart rate, weight and bp tests they took us back to the room where our nurse for the day took our version of events that lead us to them.

After she was done, Dr. Beatey came in and took the most thorough history. He was very nice and put us at ease pretty quickly. After taking the history, he did a very thorough exam (similar to the pedi yesterday). His first comment was that she does not look like a sick little girl and everything preliminarily checks out great. The only thing he could find was the fact that her eyes and pupils were different sizes.

We took blood work and a chest x-ray to look for any masses around the superior cervical ganglion in the upper chest area. The ironic thing was that we had had a chest x-ray just 2 weeks ago so it gave the radiologist a nice comparision. Except for some slightly off bloodwork results, most likely due to her fighting off the virus mom and I have had, everything looks pretty good!

We are still waiting to hear back from Dr. Beatey to see what the next step will be. She might have to have a CT to double check everything the chest x-ray showed, or we may just be waiting and watching for a while. I will update with the news when we hear something!

Thank you to everyone thinking about us today, knowing you all care has helped us get through this difficult time~

UPDATE: I just spoke to Dr. Beatey and he feels we should do an MRI and Adrenal ultrasound to further rule out any brainstem issue and verify no neuroblastoma. So still on pins and needles until the MRI is done at some point next week.

Scary uncertainty...

I am copying a pasting from an email I wrote today to tell the story about our day... Sorry if it sometimes seems out of context.

Brianna's pupils are dramatically different sizes (have been for a month or so) and we were referred to a pediatric opthamalogist to examine her. Todd took her to the appointment this afternoon. The Dr. said that she either has two extremes: either she is just normally that way and the reason for this difference is completely benign or she may have neuroblastoma. Obviously we have to take this very seriously. They were referred back to our pediatricians office for a 24 hour urine test to check for levels of hormone in Brianna's system. The pediatrician and eye doctor thought it very important we see the pediatric oncologist (man to even say that...) right away tomorrow morning. They will determine what imaging and bloodwork needs to be done to determine whether or not it is neuroblastoma. Our appointment is for 9am on Friday morning(tomorrow). I do not know how long the appointment will take, what they will do, or if we will need to go directly for imaging...

The good news out of a crappy day... Brianna was all smiles and a happy happy girl today. So even though she was being examined literally from head to toe, she took it all in stride.

Please help us pray for the best tomorrow and from here on out for our little girl!

Some pics...

I was just noticing how much Brianna has grown... Here is a pic taken at one week and another taken today at about 10 weeks...

Milestones of the week: "talking back and holding things on purpose" Alright, she's not really talking of course but she will definitely copy me when I go "ohhh' and 'ahhh' and she also is laughing a bit and learning to stick out her tongue. Here's a pic of her grabbing at her favorite...giraffe!

Two month checkup-

Brianna had her 2 month check up this morning and shots. Todd has been in WI all week and I had to work so Grandma took her and said she did great! She weighed 11 lbs 7 oz and is 24 inches long. I have to look at the growth charts to see what percentile because Dr. Martin didn't go over that with mom. She's lifting her head up appropriately and using her legs better than the Doctor expected given the fact that she was in a brace until a week ago. She is even putting weight on them and lifting herself up a bit. So exciting!

Mom said she had 3 shots and did pretty well. She only cried for about 5 minutes and by the time they had her dressed and in the car seat she was back to her old self - for now that is :) We will see how she does this afternoon. Mom gave her some tylenol to combat any fever that might try to spike. Lets hope for a happy baby tonight! - I really hope she continues the STTN as she has been for the past few weeks. Gotta love it that she sleeps straight from 9-6!! (lucky us)

The Dr. did up her dose of Zantac and kept her on her new dose of Prevacid. So she is currently taking two meds twice a day. Dr. Martin wanted us to watch and see how she does over the next week to look for improvement (already 100% improved from last weekend). If it doesn't look like the meds are doing the job, we will have to go in for more tests and they might have to change her meds/formula around.

The last thing on my list was her eyes. I don't know if I had mentioned that her pupils were different sizes and have been for quite a while. Well anyone who knows me knows that I am very type A and paranoid about anything going wrong with her so I have been freaking out about this for the past month. When we were in the ER with her last weekend, I asked the doc about it there and he didn't see much of a problem with them. They both dialate and constrict appropriately. Well, the pediatrician we saw Sunday morning thought it was enough for a referral to a pediatric opthamologist. (They scheduled that for next Thursday.) Of course this freaks me out even more and I proceed to google the topic - not recommended! Dr. Martin looked at them today and said that she didn't think it would be anything serious. So I am hoping that two out of the three docs that looked at them this week are right! We will know next Thursday I guess!

If you are still reading, congrats! I know this turned into a long one! Ill keep you all updated on how she does post-shots and what happens next week at the opthamologist.

Sick baby = fussy time and sleepless nights

So mom and I had a scare this weekend with Brianna.

We were at the mall and Brianna was acting somewhat odd. She had an odd look on her face and seemed kind of out of it. As we were changing her in one of the mall restrooms (after 3 failed attempts at finding a changing table), she started laboring in her breathing, wheezing and I think her lips started turning blue. Needless to say, I completely freaked out and picked her up and handed her to my mom. After a few seconds (though it felt like a lot more), she started crying and her breathing returned to normal. Of course we called the pediatrician right away who sent us to the emergency room.

I was on call this week so I planned to be going to the ED, but NOT for my daughter... thankfully, she had stabilized and the ED staff was very helpful in getting her through to the back in less than 5 minutes. After a chest x-ray and 3 hours, we were released with the diagnosis of reflux induced chocking. (She has been diagnosed with reflux since about 3 weeks old).

We went home with a somewhat happy Brianna and thought things would be back to normal. Six hours later as I was getting her ready for bed, it happened again. Of course this time I knew what to expect and she only wheezed for a few seconds. I had her up and screaming as soon as I recognized what was going on. Needless to say, I called the pedi once again and they recommended we come in to the clinic in the morning.

After a very sleepless night - and THANKFULLY no pages for me to the emergency room - we made it to the pediatrician without any more episodes. The pedi looked her over from head to toe and changed her reflux meds along with recommending we thicken her formula with rice cereal.

With the eventful day we had that day and the day before, Brianna was so overtired that we had to drive around for over a half an hour to get her to calm down enough to go to bed! Our poor new neighbors were just moving in yesterday and she was screaming nearly the whole time. I was tempted to introduce myself and appologize!

- a pic of her in her new carrier - one that is good for her hips so we don't have to worry about dislocating them! This was one of the ways I attempted to calm her down... it did work but only for a while.

Today she seems a bit better now that we have had her new med on board for a while and thickening her formula... Lets hope for the best~ We are just happy to know the cause of what happened and are praying for no more episodes!

No more harness!

After a long day at Shriners with my mom and Todd, Brianna got a clean bill of hip health! Though Todd had to kindly remind Dr. Pete that she had infact been stable for 6 weeks now (he initially said ok, looks good, lets keep her in for another two weeks), he finally gave her the all clear. The ultrasound looked so good the radiologist said he couldn't even tell there was ever a problem. She's scheduled for a two month follow up and will continue to have follow ups until she is 18. It's good to see she will be followed closely.

Its pretty funny to watch her try to adjust to life without it! She has had a brace of one form or another since she was 13 days old. We will see how she will sleep tonight...

Im posting some pics of Brianna without her harness. -Some of the MAY have been taken before she got the 'all clear' in our illegal nightly stretch sessions ;)

Lets hope for the best tomorrow!!

My first week back to work is offically done... now comes week two and on call. Im completely dreading balancing on-call with work and new baby. But I guess Ive got to jump back in with both feet! Thankfully Todd is here thru Friday (then going up to Milwaukee for the week) and my mom is in town.

Brianna was a bit fussy the past week...probably because she is still adjusting to everything. This past weekend she must have been so happy to have both of us home that she wouldn't take any naps, so of course she was overtired. She managed to sleep pretty well, once we got her down for the night though...

Here's a pic taken on Monday after I came home from my first day back at work... Do you think she missed her mom?? I like to think so :)

Tomorrow is a big day for us... IF all goes well, Brianna may be getting her harness off! We are so excited! I've got a pile of cute outfits ready to be washed and cannot wait to let her wear them all.

The hurdle is her sonogram and the Dr. Her hip has been 'normal' on sonogram for the past month and she has been in a stable position for 6 weeks so we will see. It all depends on Dr. Pete's mood tomorrow I guess!

Let's hope for the best~ Hopefully at this time tomorrow, our little girl will be free!

Back to work...

Today was my first day back at work. I have to say it was probably much more difficult for me than it was for Brianna. In fact, she probably didn't realize I was even gone more than a bit. It was nice to come home and find her cooing and smiling. Im sure this week will be hard, but hopefully they will get better.

Next week my mom is coming to spend three weeks with her and then after that is the dreaded daycare :( Feb 2nd will be a very tough day. But we found a daycare we feel pretty good about and hopefully she will do well there - again harder on us than on her!

Her sleeping has been getting better and better too! (probably jinxing us here) Last night we were lucky to go from 8:30 all the way to 5:45! Not too shabby for a seven and a half week old! It probably has something to do with the fact that when she's awake all she wants to do is eat and eat and eat! Lets hope for more nights like last night!

Hopefully only one more week in her harness as well! We have an appointment with her specialist next Tuesday and if all looks well, he said this might be our last week in the harness - YAY! She doesn't really mind, its all she really knows. But I know Todd and I will be happy. Less to deal with on our midnight diaper changes! Wish her luck!

Here's one of our favorite pics from Christmas day...