All's well!

Hannah had her 8 month development check up on Wednesday. She now weighs 18lb 13oz and is still above the 50th centile line! She is very tall (perhaps I should say long!) at 73 cm (nearly 29 in).

Her development is completely normal for a baby of her age, which I really knew already but it's nice to have a health professional say it.

The doctor who examined her was asking about biliary atresia as she examined Hannah's tummy. I saw a look of concern come over her face, and she asked if Hannah had any symptoms now. I replied that her liver is enlarged, but stable, and the look of relief on her face was evident! She said she could just feel the edge of it. I can imagine that she just thought for a moment she would have to give me some bad news....

Hannah continues to be a complete livewire - I cannot imagine what a little terror she will be when she gets to Caitlin's age. At the moment she is into absolutely everything including picking up and eating microscopic particles from the floor. She is very difficult to keep amused and gets bored quickly, but overall is a very happy baby.

Coming up next - blood tests early June followed by a clinic appointment with Dr Coad on the 10th, then a much needed family holiday!!

Chubby Baby

WOW!!!!!
Hannah's weight has moved above the 50th centile for the first time since before her Kasai!!!!!As of today she weighs 8.21 kg or 18 lb 1.5 oz.
Fantastic!!! She has gained 3 lb in 7 weeks!!!!!
And it's all making little chubby arms and legs.

Busy baby

With all the temperature drama I forgot to mention in the last entry that Hannah is on the move!!!!!And sitting up!!!!!! Shows how this thing means you can focus on the negative too much. She is getting around by rolling over and over, and can move round in a circle on the spot to change direction. She is sitting really well but needs plenty of padding around as she has a tendency to fling herself backwards. We have got a Galt playnest which we had for Caitlin and this is invaluable as she can topple in any direction without hurting herself.Another new development - we have seen the first evidence of her understanding words!! If you say 'Caitlin' she very deliberately turns around and looks at her sister.

Just for reference I was confused in my last entry by the holiday weekend. The temperature developed on Monday evening and the trip to the hospital was on Tuesday.

Mini cholangitis scare

We've had our first 'unexplained fever'. Hannah developed a slightly raised temperature on Sunday evening about 6. Calpol brought it down, but on Monday morning the temperature had begun to climb again and by lunchtime had reached 39.5 degrees (103 in farenheit), with no other symptoms so we decided it was time for a trip to the hospital. The upshot is that the LFTs came back as normal so it was put down to being viral, and we were sent home, but it was a bit like pulling teeth to get there! More of that shortly....

Any BA/Liver parents out there will appreciate this as a brilliant set of LFTs
Total Bilirubin 6 (0.35 in US measure)
Albumin 36
Alk Phos 275
ALT 49
AST 60
Hurrah!

So....the story. As per the 'swollen tummy' incident we were seen first of all by a house officer. I told her that there should be a copy of the shared care guidelines from Birmingham and the letter from Dr Coad on the ward. No, not on the computer. No, we don't keep any files on the ward, they are all in the 'bowels of the hospital'. So I produce Dr Coad's letter. Ah, you need to be seen by a registrar. Wait for the registrar to finish with another patient. Well, Hannah seems fine, I don't want to take blood unless it's really necessary, I'm sure it isn't, I'm sure it's viral but I'll just check with the consultant. Wait for the consultant to finish with another patient AND write up the notes. Oh no, don't assume anything without ringing Birmingham, they're very fussy about their patients. Registrar phones Birmingham. Overheard: 'If it were ascending cholangitis there would be other symptoms wouldn't there? Oh right, not necessarily. And it's not really necessary to do bloods is it. Oh right, it is.' So it took 2 hours to get to the point where they took the bloods, whereas if they had been able to find the guidelines from Birmingham they would have told them to do the bloods straight away. SIGH!

I am going to ask for my own copy of these guidelines to take with me if I have to go there - it will save a lot of time and bother.....Anyway the good news is that today Hannah is 100% well and completely fever free, so not only was it 'just a virus', it was a short lived one too, so we are very thankful.

Vaccinations...getting there

Hannah has had a quiet couple of weeks, just the Hep B vaccination last week (she was her usual brave little self, suppose she thinks having needles stuck in her is just something that's part of life). She remains the picture of health, fortunately she seems to have avoided the nasty virus that knocked big sister Caitlin for six. We have the next hep B on April 13th and then no vaccinations for 5 months!!!!!!! (After 11 injections in 8 sessions over 4 months )

Unfortunately there's a bit of a glut of them in the autumn, but after that I think there's just Pneumovax at 2 years and the yearly flu jab.Her next clinic appointment (Dr Coad again) is on 3rd June so she will have bloods taken just before that. So long as Hannah's health continues to be as good as now, we have a much needed family holiday planned just after that.

Caitlin is back to her usual self which is a huge relief, it was not very pleasant to see my normally bubbly little girl so ill and withdrawn. This is the first time she has had anything more than a cold or upset tummy and I don't think she knew what hit her! The docs think she was hit by 2 viruses in quick succession and her little immune system struggled to cope. I am working on an independent website to free up the caringbridge space for someone else, so will post a link to that when it's finished