Lasix

I don't know how many echocardiograms Camden has had, but it's been a lot. He had a cardiologist appointment the other day and I was not looking forward to it. I already knew that Dr. C would not be impressed with his lack of weight gain. The tricky part is not knowing if it's due to his VSD or if it's just him. It had been two months since we had seen Dr. C and I think Camden weighed around 12.5 pounds. So, when he only weighed 13 lbs 9 oz at this visit he was a little concerned. He had another echo done which showed absolutely no change. I guess that could be good or bad. I was hoping the hole was a little smaller, but thankful that there are no signs of stress on his heart. The one thing that was different with this visit was the brief mention of surgery. He was not saying that he thought Camden would necessarily need surgery, but didn't make it sound like it was out of the question. We didn't discuss it further because I would rather cross that bridge when we come to it. For now things look pretty good so I don't want to add another layer of worry on right now. He wants to start him on Lasix just in case his lungs may be getting overloaded with fluid. Sometimes babies with congenital heart defects have difficulty gaining weight because they spend so much energy feeding. They end up burning so many calories because they are working too hard. We don't really think Camden's heart is causing him not to gain weight because it hasn't in the past. He also does not breathe heavy, sweat, or take a long time to eat. However, if his VSD is causing the feeding problem, he thinks the Lasix will help. He could tell I was very hesitant about starting a new medication but assured me that there were little to no side effects and that we could stop it if it didn't seem to help. I suppose it doesn't hurt to try. We get to go back in two months for another echo. Until then we will continue to pray that the hole keeps getting smaller.

      He's always so happy at his appointments!

I really thought I was going to have to take Camden to the ER on Saturday. He woke up smiling and just as happy as can be like he always does. As soon as I picked him up I could tell he was working really hard to breathe. He just could not get enough air. He started wheezing and I laid him down to look to see if he was using extra muscles to breathe. The poor boy had all sorts of retractions going on. The intercostal retractions (area between the ribs sucking in with each breath) were the most noticeable. His respiratory rate was around 80! In just those few minutes he went from a smiling baby to a not so happy sick baby. I was about to get ready to gather things up to leave when I remembered we had some albuterol left from a couple of months ago. I gave him a breathing treatment and his breathing immediately settled down after it was done. After a couple more throughout the day and a 4 hour nap he was back to his old self again. I definitely let out a huge sigh of relief! I did NOT want to end up in the hospital. The thing that is starting to bother me is that we seem to have these respiratory issues often. I'm not sure what's going, but hopefully these episodes will happen less and less as he gets older. It's so frustrating because I just don't know why. Oh well, at least he is feeling better now!

                     He just looked so sad. 

        Several hours later my happy boy is back!

I will be happy when July gets here because June has been nuts! This week is super busy for us and I'm ready for it to be done. Monday we lay a friend to rest (which I plan to write about in a different post), Tuesday is a hearing test, Wednesday we spend the night at the hospital for a sleep study, Thursday and Friday we have therapy, and then I work Saturday. I'm ready for a vacation!

                          My friend Kari took this picture and I'm just in love with it!