Zoey is 10 weeks old already and had a busy day. As usual she seemed to be unphased by anything and handled it like a champ. Since her bilirubin levels have been elevated and are still going up, the Drs wanted to do more tests to try and figure out what it going on and if there's a bigger issue with her liver. While the ultrasound a couple days ago helped rule out a little bit, it did not completely rule out Biliary Atresia which is a very severe disease in babies but not that common. The HIDA scan done today was to test for that and they inject her with a radioactive chemical and then scan her system to see if it makes it through the liver or if the ducts that let the bile out are clogged in a really dumbed down version. Since preemie's systems are sluggish and slow for moving stuff through them, the scan didn't show much other than the radioactive stuff had made it to the liver. They want to re-scan tomorrow to see where the substance has moved to. The GI doctor and her surgeon both highly doubt that she has biliary atresia with what they have seen so far coupled with her blood work results. This was superb news but want to finish the test to be sure. That being said, it doesn't explain why her bilirubin is high and she is therefore jaundice and has been for a number of days despite the meds they have her on to lower it. Our little trooper will finish the scan tomorrow and possibly have another ultrasound to see if there's a gall stone that was missed on the ultrasound a couple days ago.
The other issue of concern has been her weight gain or the lack thereof. She had 2 days of 20 gram weight gains in a row but lost 10 grams today. Frustrating since they have to stop her feeds for hours every time they do these procedures. Hopefully all these tests will be done this week so all the extra stuff they are giving her to plump up will help if they aren't having to stop her feeds. Tomorrow will be another busy day and Friday yet another ROP eye exam to see if her eyes are ready for surgery.
Zoey was pretending to sleep while taking pictures of her today and then decided to try and block my shot. She obviously poses so much better for Daddy. She was also very awake during this point of the day and seemed to be really messing with me. It is so neat to see her personality coming out already and then she smirks at me. I swear somedays she knows what I'm saying to her! Despite everything she's going through, she seems to still have a sense of humor which I wouldn't have imagined babies could have, but when you spend enough time with this little peanut, I bet you'll agree.
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