Post-Christmas
Afton has now been home two weeks and is doing great. We were able to travel a little for Christmas. Our visiting time was limited, but Afton was happy to meet many family members (especially great grandma L).
She has transitioned almost completely to bottle feeding, but still requires the tube for medicine. In the past she would drink around 1/2 ounce to one ounce per feeding and we would supplement the remaining calories through her tube. Currently, she is eating about 3 to 4 ounces per feeding.
At her appointment today she weighed 9.25 pounds, so she is gaining weight well. You can definitely tell when you look at her cheeks. She continues to be very alert and explore the world around her. Her eyes are getting better at tracking sounds and objects.
Despite the fact that she is doing well with the bottle we are looking at doing the surgery to inplant the feeding tube into her stomach in January. She is still on the blood thinner but the doctors have decided that her clot would not be at risk of getting worse if we take her off the medicine for a couple of days to do the surgery. Then she will go back on the blood thinner for an extended time that is yet to be determined. We feel that having direct access to her stomach could be life saving for her in the future. Hopefully we won’t need to use it on a daily basis. Right now we still use it to give her medicine.
Thanks to everyone for all your help as we have returned home. We can’t state how thankful we are for all the support. For those of you who have not met Afton and would like to, we are more than happy to have visitors to our house. Again, please hold off on visiting if you have been ill.
