Good news!
Well....Alex's doctor's visit yesterday came with some wonderful news... Alex can eat again! Not eating was terribly difficult, and his GI doctor from Cleveland and KC discussed his need to "fortify" himself as much as possible as he is still extremely malnurished. Even with the TPN, it takes a lot of work to get back up to a normal range. His nightly dose of TPN is going great...it is just part of the routine now before bed...and now before we eat dinner together! It is so nice to have that family time back in our day. As Ninny always has reminded us...it is very difficult to replace the kind of communication that goes on around the dinner table!
Pack on those pounds-
Alex has gained about 10 pounds since he was admitted to the hospital in Cleveland. He's up to a whopping 173, so the TPN is doing it's job! The idea is to get him back up to a "good fighting weight" as the doctors say of about 195ish. He's getting there....slowly, but surely!
Engergizer bunny (well, not quite yet...)
Alex's energy is improving every day. He is up to working full days now after trying a week of half days last week. So far so good! He was definitely full of energy this evening...and with this being parent/teacher conference week, it was a perfect time for him to use that energy to tease me out of my serious "work mode" when I got home today :). Although, when he gets tired, he gets tired quickly and falls asleep hard and fast.
Next steps-
We have two appointments on the 17th of March in Cleveland. One with Dr. Geisler (our awesome surgeon) and one with Dr. Shin (our soon-to-be awesome GI doctor...we haven't actually met him yet). Dr. Shin is a different GI doctor than the one we saw last time, but has come highly recommended for Alex's situation by Dr. Geisler. If Alex was his brother...this is who he would want him to see. Alex also got the opportunity to talk to a lady here in KC who is one of Dr. Shin's patients as well as a patient of our KC doctors, too. We absolutely feel like she was a major God-send as she was so comforting for Alex and could answer lots of our questions about how all this long-distance planning takes place.
Thank you all again so much for your prayers and support! We love you all! :)
