It's the time of year again, time for RSV season to start. The time of year that I've been dreading because of how bad baby Katea's little lungs have been already. Luckily though, she qualifies for synagis again. Not too many kids do. The shot is like thousands of dollars and if they qualify, they have to get one every single month throughout the RSV season. Because it's so expensive, there are some pretty crazy qualifications that you have to meet. There has to be dire need for it.....like being a preemie or having chronic lung disease. You have to have older siblings in the home, because with other kids around they're more likely to get sick. You have to apply for it and there has to be some reason that they approve you, because not many insurances like to pay that much for one single shot. Baby Katea qualified, which I knew she would. She's a micro-preemie, she has lots of siblings at home, she has chronic lung disease, and she's been in and out of the hospital so many times with lung issues that there was no way they weren't going to qualify her. I've heard from a few of my other NICU mom friends that their little miracles didn't qualify and it just blows my mind. I'm just so grateful that my little miracle did.
She's behind on her immunizations right now because of her hospitalization back in September. A few days after she was discharged from the hospital, I took her in to Dr. Templeman for a follow-up and she should have gotten her 1 year immunizations then, but since her little body had been pumped full of steriods in the last few days of being in the hospital, he decided to wait for a few weeks and give her a break. Her appointment for her synagis shot was today and I was wondering if they were going to give her her immunizations too, but thankfully they didn't. They had to give her the synagis shot and the flu shot and since she's never had a flu shot before they didn't know how she would react to it, so they opted to wait for a couple more weeks on the immunizations. That makes her 15 months old now and she still hasn't gotten her 12 month immunizations :-/ Normally I wouldn't care, but she's more fragile and gets sick so much more quickly...so I do worry.
When we got to the Dr's office they had me strip her down so they could get an accurate weight. She hasn't been weighed for a while, but I was sure she was at least 20lbs. Nope, believe it or not, she only weighs 18.5 lbs She's super skinny....it's almost worrisome. Since she started eating, she's been on Neosure formula...it's a special formula made just for preemies and it has extra calories to help them gain weight. She had no problems at all when she was on that stuff, she actually was pretty chunky and you couldn't even tell she was a preemie. I was told to switch her to regular formula on her 1st birthday and give her that for a few months before switching her to regular cow's milk. Since the switch to regular formula, she's gotten so so skinny. She lost a lot of weight the last time she was hospitalized too, and she just hasn't been able to put any back on. Her little body is tiny, and it makes her large head look even larger. She has no more rolls on her legs, she still wears size 3 diapers (and those are big on her)...I can hold her by her waist and my thumbs and fingers will touch....she still fits into 6-9month clothing....that's how skinny she is. She was gaining weight really well when we first left the NICU, but now they might put her in the "failure to thrive" catagory because she's just not putting on any weight like they'd like her to. I've been trying to feed her solids but her gag reflexes are really bad. So bad that she throws up everytime I feed her. Her appetite is pretty much non-existant, except when she wants a bottle....and when I try to feed her baby food, after just a couple bites...she's done. They scheduled her to be seen at a feeding clinic so they can evaluate her eating process. They told me there were some things that I can do to help her not gag when she eats, so we'll have to see how that goes. For now, I'm doing the best I can.....she's happy and healthy.....she's just not gaining weight like we'd like her to. She'll get there, I know she will!
Dr. Templeman was really happy with how active she was. She was smiling and clapping and rolling around on the table. She kept trying to grab his lanyard and put his badge in her mouth...so he gave her the popcicle stick throat checker thing to keep her occupied....that worked great! :) Then it was time to get her shots. She'd get a total of 3 shots, they give the synagis by weight and so they had to divide her dosage into two shots...and then her flu shot. I had to hold her down on the table and she didn't know what was going on. As soon as the first needle went into her thigh she screamed so loud. Broke my heart. She ended up getting one in each leg and one in her arm. She cried for quite a while after that, and she kept giving the nurse a dirty look. LOL. When she finally calmed down, I got her dressed and we left.
Baby Katea got to play with Charise for a little while...
She also got to play with NNP Joanna and Annica.....yay! Annica is having a baby boy in a couple weeks! So excited for her!
Right before we were getting ready to leave, we got to see Meredith!! Yay so happy to see her!
One synagis shot down.....one more to go every month throughout the season!
1 comment:
She's adorable! Glad she was approved for the synagis shot. They recommended it for my son when he got out of the NICU but our insurance denied it. He got through RSV season okay though, thank goodness! My son was on Neosure too, we actually just switched him to Vitamin D milk since he's turning one, but he didn't gain much weight on it so I'm hoping with table food and all that he will. Katea reminds me of him. Big head on little skinny bodies :) Lol I hope they can help you find something to get her back to her chunky little self! You're such a great Mom!!!
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