Noah went back to the doctor yet again today...
He woke up with a rash on his stomach that looked like a bad blotchy sunburn. No fever, and no signs of distress so off to the doctor we went. Of course neither my mom or Chris could get off work this time so Noah and I were on our own. I worried sick about how upset he was going to get in the car. I buckled him, gave him a piece of tissue paper to help keep him occupied and off we went. And then the most amazing thing happened. Not one single peep, not a cry, not a whimper, zero complaints the entire ride there. I kept looking in the baby mirror thinking something was wrong because he was just too quiet.
We seen yet another new doctor today, and this one seemed way more optimistic about Noah. She thinks it's too early to label Noah as having cerebral palsy and thinks we should just let time tell. For now she said she prefers to just say Noah suffered an injury due to asphyxia and thinks he may just very well make a recovery. I could tell she was genuine in her feelings and not just trying to build me up to make me feel better. She also thought that Noah's acid issue was mild and did not require a GI test and prescribed a very mild prevacid. It's a compound that she formulated just for Noah, because she knew that I'm not a fan of medicating if we don't have to. However the problem being we're having a problem finding a pharmacy to make it! The doctor feels this is temporary and may not take longer than a month to resolve.
However for the last 24 hours Noah has had ZERO arching while eating! He's been a totally different baby today, I'm not sure what Angel hugged him in the night or how many prayers from all of you that got answered, but whatever happened I hope it continues.
The doctor also had great suggestions for changing my diet, no more red sauces, (sorry pizza I will miss you dearly), go easy on the dairy, no chocolate, no coffee even if it is caffeine free, no citrus fruits, no spices, no onions (bet that one makes Chris happy...) and no garlic. I'm willing to try anything to make his little tummy happy.
We're also going backwards with the baby food. We're starting all over and doing first fruits then first veggies, no mixes, no combinations for the next few weeks. Noah also gained 2 ounces today he weighed in at 14 lbs 10 ounces.
The doctor did a strep test to determine the root of his rash, the quick test came back negative and she's really not sure about the rash, but it has improved during the day. We suspect that something irritated his skin. Although the long strep test results won't be in until Monday. But Noah has no fever and he's been the happiest today that I've seen him in maybe a month or more. It was the most beautiful great day, leaving me with the feeling that yes, indeed God is there listening.
I thought for sure that Noah would scream on the way home as he was irritated after the doctor's appointment. I strapped him in and just prayed for the best and within seconds he fell asleep, something he never does either. In fact he stayed asleep so long I had to drive around the long way home because I didn't want to disturb his peacefulness by arriving home to early.
The doctor also thinks that a therapy pillow would help Noah learn to sit, although she says they are very expensive costing between $100-200 and warned that Medicaid will not pay the costs of any therapy related tools. She also said that we need to be switching Noah's toys every three days and making different sets of toys to give him so he's motivated to reach for things, she thinks he's very much getting bored with seeing the same group of toys and that he'll forget that the old ones aren't new after three days. The problem being I don't think Noah has enough toys for me to circulate them like that.
At least I came away from this appointment feeling like someone finally had some great suggestions for us to try. Children's Hospital also called today with what is hopefully some good news about therapy. They called Medicaid on our behalf to try to figure out how to fix everything and Medicaid cannot find in their system that they ever approved Centura Health for therapy, so they cannot explain how I got a letter stating so. Which means according to Medicaid Children's hasn't been blocked from therapy for Noah, and they think that we may get approval as early as ten to twenty days. Which would be a blessing for Noah. I know the sooner we can help teach him how to reach those milestones that he'll do it!
I'm in awe of today, it's unreal really. Noah's amazing behavior and attitude, a decent doctors visit and answers on therapy. If this is the power of prayer I can't thank any of you enough, it's been such a hard week, and this is just the little window of relief I needed to keep going.
Love,
Stacy, Chris & Noah
