Sweet Relief

We went to the surgeon's office first thing Thursday morning.

Campbell was weighed.

I held my breath.  As I do everytime I set her on a scale.

The digital scale was flashing as it calibrated her weight.

Blink.

Blink.

18 lbs 12 oz.

Two weeks before, she weighed 17 lbs 11 oz.

I let out the breath as my slow brain was registering the math and the shock.

That is over a pound in just 2 weeks!

That is huge!

Amazing.

God is so good.

I breathed a little deeper as we walked to the exam room to wait for the doctor.

Eric and I were armed with 3 things.

Campbell's growth chart, courtesy of our pediatrician.

Her speech evaluation, which Campbell scored very high on for her actual age, not adjusted.  (This is a big deal for a preemie.  Preemies are measured by their adjusted or corrected age until they turn two.  So the fact that she is doing so well for her actual age is very exciting for us.)  This would help to prove she has good cognitive function.

Her developmental evaluation.  While she does have a couple delays, she has improved greatly since her last eval a year ago.  Last summer, her adaptive care domain was at 100% delay.  Now, it is only at a 35%.  And in order to even qualify for Early Intervention services, kids must present with at least a 30% delay.  Therefore, 35% is very low on the spectrum.  This eval would show that she is really coming along with her milestones and catching up.

(I do want to point out that it really was God's perfect timing in all this.  We had these evaluations scheduled months in advance because Campbell's annual IFSP meeting is coming up in July.  It just so happened that her PT, DT, and speech evals fell right in between the gastro appt and subsequent surgical consult??  Evals that would provide crucial and imperative information regarding her development??  Looking back on all this now, I am just completely amazed by how He worked all that out for us.)

The surgeon came in.  He remembered Eric right away from when he operated on Lenay almost 2 years ago.  He repaired her inguinal hernia when she was still in the NICU.  I found it absolutely amazing that he remembered him since he has literally operated on over 15,000 kids.

He studied Campbell.  He studied the paperwork we presented him.  He looked at her growth chart for a long time.

Well, she's not excelling in her growth now is she?

Definitely not, I said.

I explained that she had been sick before her last gastro appointment.  And we pointed out her whole pound gain in 2 weeks.

He asked about her milestones, and we pointed to the evals, showing that she is making strides and catching up.

He looked down at the chart again.  Then took a long look at Campbell, who was chomping on a Ritz.

Well, I think she's bought herself a pass.

I felt myself sit up a little straighter as the weight lifted up off my chest.

I wanted to kiss this man.

Now, she has no margin for error.  She needs to continue to gain weight at a steady rate in order to keep me away.

Got it.  No offense, but we hope we never have to see you again.

None taken.  I get that a lot.

He thanked us for bringing in the paperwork.  He had referred to it throughout our visit as being very helpful information.

We walked out of his office in complete and utter relief. 

No g tube for this girl.

And so we headed down to the Spotted Cow to buy her a big cream cheese cinnamon roll.