Micah health update

As I mentioned in the last post, Micah has graduated from home health. No longer will a nurse come to the house to check him over. I know it’s a good thing. It means Micah is considered healthy. But I’ll miss that safety net. Oh, and his weight during his last visit from Melissa was 15 pounds, 3 ounces.

Micah pulled out his feeding tube on Friday evening, resulting in a trip to the ER. It seems the balloon (which keeps the tube in the correct place in his stomach) has a slow leak so we’ll have to get a new one. That likely means a trip to Milwaukee sometime this week. We’ll know more after we talk to someone in GI on Tuesday.

Micah saw an ophthalmologist for the first time recently. He has strabismus (crossed eyes) and it will likely require surgery in the next year. The dr. told us that if Micah needs another surgery before then for something else, they could likely do his eye surgery during the same trip to the OR. We might get our two-for-one after all, because Micah will need at least one more surgery this year for an undescended testicle.

Many of you have asked about his eating. The answer is that he doesn’t. He takes nothing by mouth. We’re putting about 2 ounces of formula a day into his G-tube now (as compared to everything else going into his J-tube). We will try to increase that by an ounce a week. He gets a little puky when he gets those two ounces in succession, so I don’t know how long we’ll be able to continue to push him before we reach his threshold. It would be wonderful if we didn’t hit a threshold. If he could take the whole volume into his G-tube (stomach) instead of his J-tube (jejunum… small bowel), that would mean that his duodenum is functioning “normally” and he wouldn’t need any additional surgery. So if you feel led, that’s a great thing for which to pray.

Micah has physical therapy and speech therapy every week, and he has occupational therapy every other week. Of those areas, he seems to be functioning closest to his age in occupational therapy. We’re focusing on him using his left hand (with the short fingers) as much as his right hand. He holds onto toys for a while and flings his arms to hear the rattle sounds. From a speech perspective, he vocalizes a decent amount, but there’s still no consonants coming out. He does still allow me to mess around with his mouth and cheeks. That’s a good thing, especially considering his oral aversion. We’re now introducing tastes… just a bit of something on a fingertip into his mouth. He likes pear juice and banana. Physical therapy is getting better. He tolerates a decent amount of tummy time now and will roll to his right onto his tummy. He’s doing much better in his Bumbo seat too. His arms are still quite weak.

As I mentioned earlier, Micah has broken 15 pounds. His weight gain has slowed down. For a few weeks he was growing at a pace of an ounce a day. He’s now down to about ½ ounce, which is just fine for his age. But his feet are especially tiny. They’re about the same size as Nathan’s were when he was born! He’s not yet in a size 1 shoe. So, it looks like the 0-6month Robeez we received from some friends will actually be put to good use this fall.

Thank you for continuing to pray for our sweet little guy.
(If you haven't checked the blog for a while, see below for some new photos, as well as an announcement)