melz midnight brew

Sept 5, 2005. (Labor Day)

Today was Mariah’s first day at the hospital (University Of Virginia, Charlottesville). So far we’ve seen a handful of resident physicians; The ENT (ear, nose, & throat) specialist, the Speech Therapist, The GI specialist, Occupational & Physical Therapists, as well as many others that my foggy mind can’t remember right now…

A little background for those of you who need it: Mariah has been struggling for about 8 months now to gain weight. For as long as I can remember, she remained at 12 pounds even. Fortunately, over the past several months she has finally begun to put on the weight, and she is now over 15 pounds! Praise God! We think a combination of changing her formula and finding the bottle/nipple that works for her, helped. Unfortunately, though, Mariah is still quite small for her age (16 mos, 13 1/2 mos corrected) and she continually has problems during her feedings. She gags easily and has a tendency to vomit frequently. Along with the Dr’s, we are not only concerned about Mariah’s slow weight gain, but also the size of her head, which to us seems quite large in proportion to her tiny body. All along Mariah has had the classic “preemie” look (accd’g to the dr’s), with a long narrow head, but at her most recent appt with the Pulmanologist, even she felt that Mariah’s large head circumference was a bit alarming. She was also concerned that Mariah’s tonsils seemed quite large for her small narrow throat, and possibly could be contributing to Mariah’s problem with frequent “reflux” (vomiting), and gagging. All of these things can be common in children with the type of Cerebral Palsy Mariah has (Athetoid – low muscle tone). I think the main concern with the large head circumfrence is “hydracephaly” and/or any other unknown complications in the brain. She recommended that we bring Mariah to UVA (One of the best hospitals in the country) for a scheduled admittance, in order to be seen by everyone she needed to see instead of having to make seperate trips (we live an hour & 1/2 away) and/or possibly having to wait 6 months or longer to see certain Dr’s. (many of the specialists in this area are booked solid for the next 6 months).

As much as a hospital stay is never “fun”, it is a blessing for us to be able to have all of Mariah’s needs addressed in one place at one time, and we are thankful that our Dr’s continue to think of what is best and most convenient for our family. We are also blessed with the help of my Mom, Wilda, who is at home with our other 4 children this week. We are hoping our stay will be no longer than a week, but our Dr said to be prepared to stay anywhere from 1-3 weeks.

I will be keeping a journal blog here at blogger.com. I’m new to this world of “blogging” -so please be patient with me. I feel this is the best way to stay in touch with our dear friends and family who are praying for Mariah, and I will do my best to keep you all up to date! Thank you for your prayers!!