Wonderful Wednesday Clinic Visit

I was more nervous about today's clinic visit than I had been about an appointment in a while. Olivia has been snacking pretty much non-stop since our visit last week but she didn't seem to be gaining weight. We got up extra early this morning so I could make sure she had a good breakfast before we went to clinic. Inevitably the earlier I get up to try to get us out the door the later we end up leaving so we didn't get to clinic until after 10:30 this morning. We got into a room and then waited for the big moment...the scale. I had been a nervous wreck for no reason, Olivia's weight this morning was exactly 15 KG! No nose tube! I showed our nurse practicioner my notes of everthing that Olivia ate and drank over the last week. He sent a copy to the diatician and they were both impressed by the variety of foods Olivia is eating. She refuses to eat anything I actually cook, she'll eat snacks that I prepare at home but other than that she only wants chicken nuggets, french fries, and pizza. Ideally they'd like to see Olivia around 16.5 KG so she still has a bit more weight to gain. At least the concern about an NG tube is gone for now! Since we got there a little later in the day it seemed to take a little longer for us to get Olivia's lab results and get seen by the doctors. Dr. Paul was very impressed with how Olivia is doing. Olivia was so happy to see him by the time he finally got to our room that she was quite talkative and she told him all the colors on her flash cards and then even told him that he was wearing a pink shirt. To be fair the shirt was pink and blue stripes but pink is Olivia's favorite. Then she asked Dr. Paul to help her get down and put her boots on. Dr. Paul has 2 little girls of his own so he's really very good with her. It was fun to watch them interacting with each other. The best news from today's visit is that they are going to continue to decrease her steroids! As of today Olivia is on a small enough dose that it's no longer considered therapeutic. This means that she's not getting enough of the stuff to cause any of the nasty side effects and her muscle tone should rebound quickly. Other than that they are going to begin drawing blood for Olivia's 6 month post-transplant tests next week. The 6 month post-transplant tests include some cognitive and behavioral testing as well but those are scheduled for the first week in February. Olivia's 6 month post-transplant date is actually January 23rd but we had some scheduling issues so most of her other tests will end up being a week and a half past the 6 month mark but it shouldn't affect the results too much.

It's been entirely too long since I've posted pictures so here are some from our clinic visit today.

Apparently Olivia thought that Peter needed a pat on the back.