Lincoln's surgeon said everything looks great with his inguinal repairs and Lincoln looks great too! She listened to his lungs and checked his spine for signs of scoliosis. Both of which were good. Due to his abdominal muscles being cut for his diaphragm repair surgery, his ab muscles are shorter on the right and he has a lot of scar tissue that could impede movement in his trunk. Lincoln has already begun to slouch to the right frequently. Physical therapy will help to maintain Lincoln's good posture, and his doctors will be keeping a close eye on his spine as he grows. Linc's surgeon doesn't need to see him back for three months. At that time she will have a repeat chest x-ray to check for reherniation of his diaphragm.
Linc's neonatologist was so pleased to see him. It has been a while since we had a visit and Lincoln was asleep in the recovery room when she came to see him after his surgery. I promptly placed Lincoln on the exam table when the doc entered the room to show off his sitting abilities and she was so excited. She was amazed at his good temperament too!
Lincoln's measurements put him on the chart again! 15 lbs 2 oz (3rd percentile), 25.5 in (10th percentile) and 44.9 cm (55th percentile). It's great that Lincoln's head is just growing and growing meaning he is getting smarter! The doctor said she would not change anything with Lincoln's diet right now since he is doing so great. She would like to see his weight be more like 10th or 25th percentile before she would recommend going back to a regular calorie formula. Since Linc's birthday is not too far off now (about 4 months!) I asked about the plan for weaning off of formula. His doctor said it will all depend on Linc's weight at the time, but that she would recommend a high calorie supplement instead of cows milk for Lincoln, but he shouldn't need to be on infant formula past 12 months.
After Newborn Medicine, Lincoln had a repeat echocardiogram to check on his pulmonary hypertension and it came back as NORMAL! Don't you just love that word? The doc said that over the next few weeks I can wean Lincoln from his Sildenafil. Lincoln has been taking Sildenafil four times a day for his hypertension for over 6 months. Yay, one less med! After the Sildenafil is stopped, Lincoln will only be on Prevacid (which we hope to stop in the next few months) and a multivitamin! And of course, Albuterol breathing treatments, but we are getting there!
Lincoln is on his way to being well from a mild cold he has had the past week or so. If he continues to feel good, some time next week I will wean his Os down to 0.7LPM. After a week of good saturations on 0.7, I will turn him down to 0.6. Linc returns to see his neonatologist in clinic on Feb 16th.
After his appointments were through, we went upstairs to the NICU to visit. It was great to see so many nurses come out to see Lincoln and they were all so excited and shocked at how big Lincoln is. Lincoln's old OT and SP were there, too. All but one hadn't seen Lincoln since discharge (2.5 months old). A few hadn't seem him since he was on ECMO or before so they were really in for a change! They all kept saying how he "wasn't a little skinny old man anymore." He as hair on top and big cheeks! They were so happy to see him looking so good and told me how nice it is to see success stories. Hopefully we can see them again next time!
Lincoln's next trip to SLCH will be on Feb 10th for his first appointment with Urology. I met with the Urologist while Linc was still in the NICU when she was called in to consult due to Linc's hypospadias, but this will be our first appointment with her. Hopefully Linc will only need one surgery (probably this spring) to fix up his boy bits. After that, I hope he never needs another surgery. He's had more than most already.
And just because, here's a pic of Lincoln's favorite teether. His oxygen line!
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