Not so good doctors appointment

Tuesday Feb 22, 2011

Words from Jeff...
Thought I would fill you in a bit more and give you all I know as far as “what’s next.” Reed went to the doctor for his 9 month appointment. At his last appointment, the doctor expressed a little concern about his small size but didn’t feel it was necessary to take any medical measures at that time. Since then, Reed has had a few episodes that have resembled small seizures. As Amanda communicated all of this to the doctor today, his concern grew to the point that he wanted to run tests. Small size in and of itself is not an issue, Reed however has had some “dips” in his growth. At his birth he was in the 26th percentile for size, as of today, he’s at .04 percentile. It’s the combination of his growth dips and these “episodes” that is the cause for concern.

Today, after his appointment, we went to have blood drawn. Since his 6 month appointment, Reed has only gained 1 pound. I think they took that pound back out in 3 vials of blood. They’re testing for several things with the blood and we should know the results of the blood test tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s schedule. So far, we know we have an MRI scheduled for 1:00pm tomorrow. We have to take Reed in at 10:45 for this 1:00 test. We are still waiting to hear on an EEG where they will monitor his brain activity. If the EEG can’t take place sometime tomorrow as well, they will admit Reed for overnight observation.


Amanda & I sincerely appreciate your thoughts and prayers. We have faith that God’s watching over our little guy but we still can’t hardly stand the uncertainty and the thought of our little 9 mo., 14lb boy hooked up to these machines searching for some abnormality.


Wednesday Feb 23 2011
Words from Amanda

So I"m kinda at lost for words right now, but I do want to share with you my thoughts..... and I do want to share with you a little more about whats been going on with Reed. Like Jeff said Dr. Blanke was concerned about his growth. Here is Reed's growth since birth.

At birth
6lbs 9oz
19 3/4 in

8 days old
7lbs 3oz

1month
10lbs 10oz (26%)
21 3/4 in (9%)
39.5 cm (head)

3 months
12 lbs 6 oz (7%)
24 in (17%)
42.25 (head)

6 months
13 lbs 14oz (2.5%)
25.25 in
44.25 (head)

9 months 1 wk
14lbs 7 oz (.04%)
26.25 in (%1)
46 (head)

Let me talk about some of my concerns with his growth..... Yesterday at the Dr. Blanke didn't really talk much about what are next steps our for him as far as getting him to gain weight because he thinks these passing out and seizer episodes are linked to him not able to gain weight properly. But I do want to go ahead and share with you a little bit about what is going on with his feeding. First off I'm not worried about my milk supply. I'm doing nothing different with him than I did with the other kids. Yes you all know that I'm running a lot but to be honest I've always ran a lot. I know I'm taking in enough calories. I know I'm producing enough. Reed always seems satisfied after each feeding. He is peeping and pooping normally! I've even tried to give him a bottle of breastmilk and he wants nothing to do with it! I have strong let down almost every feeding, some are stronger than others but I always feel let down. We started food around 8 months he did great for a few weeks but here in the last 2 weeks he wants nothing to do with it! Also since January I've been feeding him on demand instead of a schedule, he eats anywhere from 4-6 times a day. He is sleeping 11-12 hours at night! A couple times a week I wake him up around 9:00pm to get an extra feeding in him.

Passing Out/ Seizer like episodes.....
So you know that long silent moment before a baby or kids lets out a LOUD cry? Well Reed has done this a total of 4 times and when he does this he passes out. The first 2 times everything was really quick and he came out of it really soon. Don't get me wrong I FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But knew it wasn't that big of a deal since I had talked to a handful of other mothers one including my mom who said that their kids did this when they were young. But what I didn't realize at the time was it's more common in toddlers not infants. In the past 2 weeks Reed has did this 2 more times where he passed out. But these were different, he lost all his color then turned blue. Then when he came out of it he had 2-4 small twitches (which Dr. Blanke thinks might be small seizers) Knowing we had a doctors appointment right around the corner I didn't want to rush to the ER because Reed seemed fine afterwards and I really just wanted to talk to Dr. Blanke about it. Looking back I really wished I would have just called Blanke's office and got in right away but I can't go back in time!! So here we are......

Yesterday was one of the longest days of my life so far and I have a feeling today will be even longer. You all know that we are down to one car. So I went to the appointment without Jeff. Praise the Lord that my mom came with me to help with the Avin and Parker and my sister had a girls date yesterday with Coop! Once I talked to Dr. Blanke for a good hour I called Jeff and asked if there was any way he could get here. He borrowed a guys car from work and got there as soon as possible! My mom took the boys home and Jeff stayed with Reed and I while we got his blood work done! Yesterday Blanke didn't give me any really clue to what it could be but all I know is he was REALLY concerned. You know your doctor is worried when he sits there and cries with you!!! At one point, which I didn't realize until I spoke to the nurse later in the day, he almost admitted Reed right away. He wanted to make sure we got the MRI and EEG done before the end of Wednesday. Right now we have MRI scheduled at 1:00 but they start to prep him at 10:45 and if the EEG isn't schedule then he wants to admit Reed tonight! To be honest I don't really know what they are looking for and what all the test are being done. REMEMBER I WAS ALL BY MYSELF when they were giving me all this information. We will know more today!!!

And to make things worse Reed has cold. On Monday he was running a fever, also has a runny nose and a cough. Dr. Blanke doesn't think they are linked just thinks he as a cold!


Jeff got up early about 5:30am to go into work to get some stuff done before the craziness starts. We will take Avin, Parker and Cooper to my moms around 9:30. We need to be at the hospital by 10:30 and they will start everything at 10:45. They will have to put him under to do the MRI which should take place at 1:00! She said it should take about an hour and we will have him back hopefully soon after. Reed could not have any solids for 24 hours prior to 1:00 today and last breastfeeding at 9:00am today!

I will post more information as we get it. Please Please Please pray for Reed and the doctors that will be working with him today!!!!!