Mattei Gerend: June 2008

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Latest Scoop

As of right now, I'm at home and doing fantastic. Thank you to everybody for your warm wishes and prayers.

When Dr. Demonteverde saw me in the hospital, she had a big "a-ha" moment. She heard my beathing sound and recognized a sound called "stridor". She thinks that I likely have a condition called "laryngomalacia" which basically means "soft larynx" or more informally as "floppy voice box".

Some links to information on laryngomalacia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngomalacia
http://www.bcm.edu/oto/grand/08_18_05.htm
http://www.utmb.edu/otoref/grnds/Stridor-050615/Stridor-050615.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4100/is_200410/ai_n9464857

The laryngomalacia is very likely combined with a case of "GERD", or "Gastroesophageal reflux disease" (a.k.a. Acid Reflux). The doctors prescribed a baby version of the medicine Zantac to treat that. It is a liquid that tastes like peppermint, and I don't like it. Mommy and daddy are always tricking me by putting it into a nipple and having me drink it before I realize what I've done.

In addition, they make sure to keep me upright for 30 minutes after eating, and try to put me on my side when I'm in bed. As if that wasn't bad enough, they have one end of my bed tilted up so that my head stays higher than my tummy. Sometimes I roll to the foot of the bed (when I'm really pissed off I can actually roll over in a flat bed; on the slanted bed I can do it pretty easily).

Tomorrow I see Dr. Demonteverde at 10am, and then daddy has a dentist appointment at 11am. He has a toothache. If he'd just brush his teeth once in a while...

As for our weekend plans, we're going up to Santa Barbara on Thursday afternoon, so Daddy can go to Uncle Jefferson's wedding rehearsal. The wedding is on Friday, then we come home Saturday morning. We're not going up to the Valley or Santa Maria; we're going to just stay in SB and try to take it easy. Daddy keeps saying that Mommy and I need our rest and to get into a routine. He won't admit it, but he needs more rest too!

I'll let you know how my doctor appointment goes...

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Visitors!!!

My god mother Megan came to visit with Dani and 'grandmas Gertie and Leona' (Grandma Peggy & Auntie Pam)

Pulmonary Specialist

This pulmonary specialist in Long Beach is top of his field :-).
We will probably see him next Week :-(

Stridor

Sounds like this stridor is a problem. Getting referred to specialist in Long Beach to run a scope to her larynx.

Medical update

Ok the latest on my medical issues. every test has come back ok so the hospital doctor was stumped. she said we could probably assume it was acid reflux that wasn't detected in the tests. mommy and daddy were not too happy about that. late last night dr. d came by and talked to up for a long time. she heard my cute little girl noises and said a-ha! she said that sound is called stridor. it is caused by my voice box being too flimsy so it partially collapses when i am very relaxed or stressed. it is very common. we are going to see an ENT specialist to learn more but dr. d was pretty optimistic that this could have caused my problem. i will let you all know as soon as we know more. hopefully we can go home today and see the ENT as an out-patient later. we will see...

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Update

The doctor came by and gave us an update. All of the tests that have come back so far are OK. Even the upper GI where we thought there was acid reflux, the GI doctor said that it was very mild and normal. The only tests we have left to hear back from are the EEG, the sleep apnea/pH test. And the blood test they want to redo because her sodium was a little high . . . probably because she was drinking mostly formula. that's probably nothing though.

Doing ok

I just had an echocardiogram to look at my heart. The tech said it looked boring, which daddy says is a good thing because nothing is out of the ordinary. The cardiologist will review it to be sure.

So it looks like hopefully all this is for a damn case of acid reflux. But they still have to rule out everything else. Personally I am just glad they took that f@#!?g tube out of my nose and throat. Daddy says it was a pH probe to measure acid in my esophagus. It was in there for 12 hours. That thing sucked! We think that the upper GI test, combined with the stomach acid (pH) test, will give the doctors some good information about what's wrong with me.

So we still need to wait for the results of all my tests to come back, just to be sure that there's nothing else wrong with me. But everybody so far seems to think (and hope?) that acid reflux is the only problem.

So don't worry Brandy, I will probably be just fine. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We love you all.

Good news, i just got

Good news, I just got back from having an upper GI x-ray. They strapped me to a plexiglass board really tight, laid me on my back, and made me drink a bottle filled with a barium solution. Then they took a bunch of x-rays of me as they turned me around onto my side and stuff, still strapped to this board. Daddy was watching as the barium went down into my tummy and then after moving around a little, the barium went back up my esophagus. Pretty far, almost to my throat.

It looks like I have a bad case of acid reflux. Let's hope that's all that's wrong with me!

There's still a few more tests to run, they are going to do an echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound of my heart) and then maybe run an endoscope down my esophagus to look for damage and stuff like that.

I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

All Wired Up

Tubes and wires

OK so as some of you may have heard I am back in the damn hospital again. I mean, come on, it's a great hospital and the nurses are all wonderful, but we just HAD to come back. And now they say that i have to stay until at least Saturday!!! That's messed up. I want to meet my cousin Espen.

The reason that I am here is that I had some sort of seizure this morning. Dr. D wanted me to have a ton of tests to figure out what's wrong with me. Mommy is taking this really hard. Grandma Gerend is here with us. What a crappy deal she got for this vacation! I will keep you all posted on my status when I know more.

Love, Madison

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. Daddy just wants to spend the day with me in his arms. I have no arguments there!

Later today we're going to go to the Men's Wearhouse to look for Daddy's outfit for Uncle Jefferson's wedding. And then we'll probably try to go over to Great-Grandma & -Grandpa O'Neill's House to visit.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

To The Beach...

Today Mommy & Daddy took me for a walk on the Strand in Hermosa Beach. We stopped for coffee, and Mommy almost ripped this dumb b***h's head off at the Coffee Bean. This lady was treating the barista's coffee-pick-up-table as a smorgasbord, and took Mommy's coffee. Instead, she just started talking a bunch of s**t loudly enough so that that lady could hear her.

Then we saw a cop on a motorcycle with a license plate frame that said "I eat donuts...that's how I roll". Daddy thought that was funny.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

I'm a girl...

I'm a girl

Dr Sanders came by

Dr Sanders came by to check on mommy. She is doing so good that we are being released today. I get to go home too!

cutest baby

The cutest baby in the whole world (according to mommy & daddy)

Free Time

Mommy & daddy took me for a walk and saw the nurse who took me in to do my vitals. Now they have a little free time!

Dr. Demonteverde

Doing good. Dr. Demonteverde came by late tonight and checked me out. Said i'm doing good on the formula. Says i'm ok to go home!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Eyes 2

Eyes

Animals.

I bite boobies like a barracuda, eat like a pig, and quack like a duck when i suck my thumb after i eat.

Pumping.

Hopefully tomorrow mommy's boobies will heal enough to start pumping milk for me to eat. I have such an appetite!

Wow, big day!

Wow, big day! mommy has really sore boobies. She had to stop nursing me and let them heal. Daddy feeds me formula from a syringe.

One Eye

Here's one eye...

Funny Face

Sleeping

I've been sleeping for hours, ever since they brought me back from the nursery. It's been pretty loud but that hardly bothers me.

Spit up.

Last night in the nursery I spit up "thru every hole in my face" so they suctioned me and now I have a snotty nose :-(

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Boobies

Still trying 2 get this whole breast feeding thing down. I'm getting better though...20 minutes...longest feeding yet!

Kicked out

I got kicked out of the nursery because i cry too much. Said i'm probably hungry. Need boobies. NOW DAMNIT!!!

BLAND!!!

Daddy went to the caf for dinner. He says that shit is so bland even the hot sauce is bland.

Mommy farted

Mommy finally farted so the doc let her eat a real meal so now daddy is getting hungry bye bye for now the end

Visitors!!!

I finally got to meet my great grandpa O'Neill

Morning Time

I'm learning how to eat. Mommy walked to the bathroom & had her catheter taken out. Her pain is only 3 out of 10 so far. I'm so happy she's not in too much pain!

This plot

This plot is to wrap him around my little finger as part of my bigger plan 2 rule the world from my throne...

early morning feeding

When mommy holds me I cry but when daddy holds me i'm ok. Its all part of my nefarious plot to wrap him around my little finger, as part of my bigger plan to rule the world from my throne!