emesis

Dealing with our daughter's medical problems has brought with it many new vocabulary words, one of which is an especially persistent annoyance = emesis.

emesis [ˈɛmɪsɪs]

n

(Medicine) the technical name for vomiting

[via New Latin from Greek, from emein to vomit]

Iris has one vomit a day. It is a rare treat when she makes it an entire day without a vomit. This may be a sign of reflux, but we are under the impression that the Zantac and the Prevacid are doing the appropriate things to combat reflux.

Yesterday was vomit-free and I was under the impression that today would be similarly vomit-free but she had her daily gut clearing while we were at the cardiac clinic for a follow-up visit.

The follow-up visit consisted of an EKG and an echo while Iris was on and off oxygen. They found that the oxygen is still helping her (i.e. she has septal flattening while off oxygen) so she is staying on it. We also were given the results of some of her genetic tests, which came back negative. We are still waiting on the results of some of the tests and I will be calling the geneticist later in the week to get a clearer idea of which results these were. I think we can tentatively say that she doesn't have any of the scary syndromes associated with aniridia that also include cognitive developmental delays. A good thing.

Iris has shown progress over the weekend in terms of her weight gain, but it's not enough. She went from 4.25 kg (9lbs 6oz) to 4.3 kg (9lbs 8oz). They want her to be gaining 0.014 kg (0.5 oz) per day and she is missing that mark. Her vomiting certainly does not help the matter. 

doctor visits

Iris had two doctor appointments today. The first was with the pediatrician who was supposed to see her shortly after discharge from the hospital to get an idea of her baseline. Turns out the pediatrician also has a cardiac baby who is now 8 years old and plays soccer. The second appointment was with the cardiac clinic at Children's. That appointment went much longer.

The good news from today is that Iris's incision wounds are healing well. The cardiologist was pleased with her progress. The bad news is that Iris lost weight and everyone is especially concerned about her getting behind. When she left the hospital she weighed 4.3 kg (9 lbs 8 oz) and today she weighed in at 4.25 kg (9 lbs 6 oz). Apparently it is hard for babies to get enough calories after a big surgery because their bodies are working so hard to heal. It doesn't help that she is a "reflux queen" (in the words of the physical therapist). So we have just started her on Prevacid. We also have to "fortify" her bottles with formula. She is not getting straight formula but at each feeding she is supposed to get mostly breast milk with a tiny bit of formula added in.