Dr. Davies appt

I made a checkup appt with Dr. Davies for Eliana (her ped GI from Sac who took care of her during the hospitalization) - I just wanted to see what she thought of what I was feeding her. The numbers we were getting back from the weight and height checks I was having done for her (at each of Kes's well visits and any sick visits) were OK, but I wanted to talk diet and make sure Dr. Davies was happy with how Elly looked, b/c she was looking skinny to me in the ribs despite hearty thighs. So, today was the appointment.

Not such good news. 38.5 inches and 29 lbs. Which is up half an inch and down half a pound since her last check. And her weight-for-height percentile is at the 7th. (To put that into perspective, at her last weigh-in before her hospitalization, she was in the 4th percentile, but when we left Dr. Davies' care last June, she was in the 25th.) So, I've got to readjust from semi-high-calorie diet to super-high-calorie diet. (The good news for Elly is that means more milkshakes... the bad news is it means a lot less fruit.) I'm going to be faxing in 5-day diet logs and weight and height measurements (taken by ME for accuracy and consistency) to Dr. Davies every 3-4 weeks after which she'll give me a call and we'll discuss the previous and upcoming few weeks.

This is frustrating to me b/c I've been doing the best I can to be on top of this, yet trying not to spend too much time worrying. I thought I was doing a good job by having her weight and height checked every time I stepped foot in the dr's office, but apparently it's not good enough. I think doing my own measurements every few weeks will be much more accurate. And the other thing that frustrates me is I so KNEW things weren't quite right, by the look of her ribcage, by her behavior, sleeping patterns, and the reappearance of certain aversions/sensitivities, but I just didn't want to believe it, or I didn't want to be paranoid, or I just figured I was being diligent enough. Ugh. I'll take paranoid. Or rather, I'll just introduce new behavior (the measuring and check-in schedule, and the return to super-calories) and be diligent and watchful, while clicking off the paranoia with the knowledge that I am doing my best (as strange as that may sound, it's very similar to my thoughts about many of my life choices such as vegetarianism, breastfeeding, nonmedical birth, etc).

But as always, Dr. Davies is wonderful. So matter-of-fact about it - here's where we are, and here's what we're gonna do to get where we need to get, no worries. Any other doctor, and I'd have walked out of there feeling many times worse than I felt. I trust her medical judgment, implicitly. (And on top of it, she is warm and caring - remembered us before she even saw us, and enjoyed meeting Kes.) I'm just so glad to have her guidance through this challenge.