Here lately I have been getting a lot of people wondering how Maddie is doing these days. We all get tied up in our own lives that we forget about others. Not on purpose but it happens. So a little update on Maddie......................
She is about 16 and a half pounds. In 5 months she has gained about 6 pounds which is great, especially considering she was sick for about 2 weeks in May. Even the slightest cold still gets her way down. Until her immune system can really get strong just a cold will slow her down. We have been in contact with her pulmonologist as soon as she became ill.
He went after it at 110%. Upped her breathing treatments, treated her with a 2nd antibiotic. She was eating well but not great during that time. Now that she is better she is eating great. When Maddie is really ill she has to eat at least 500 calories to maintain and can do that for just a few days. Our everyday goal is to get her to eat 750 calories.
Since she has been feeling better she is eating 800 to 950 calories everyday. She is still gaining only average weight for a child her age though, because she is so active. If they had an olympic sport for infant commando crawling she would be the Gold Medalist. In the last 10 days she has started crawling on her hands and knees. Which is HUGE!!!
She is even pulling herself up to stand, hanging on to the couch or pack n play and walking along the sides. For the average child this is actually slightly behind. For a child who had open heart surgery a little less than eight months ago and who 5 months ago still could not hold her head up, it is AMAZING.
Because Maddie spent a total of 24 days in the hospital during the last 3 days of October, most November and a few days in December, she was behind the eight ball to start. I was so worried about her then. The physical therapy she has once a week is doing amazing things. We still meet with the nutritionist once a month. As far as her doctors are concern we are down to seeing them each one more time this year and then it will be once or twice a year.
Now that we really feel like we are on the other side of the hill we are going down really fast I need to fill my time with something else. I have checked into becoming a regular volunteer at the children's hospital. It is really a long process one because they only want people who are willing to make the commitment and make sure they should be around children. You have to go to a meeting just to get an application to apply.
I found out Wednesday that they had an application meeting last Thursday night. I could not work it out with Phil on such short notice. So hopefully in about 3 weeks they will have another one. I really want to give back to those at the hospital who really helped us out and educated us as we were going through it.
The point to all of this is, if you met Maddie today you would have no idea what she has been through except for the fact that she is still a little thin but gaining every day. She really is doing well. Thanks to all of those who still ask.
TTFN
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