We had a very relaxing time this weekend with plenty of time for reading and cooking, which was just what the doctor ordered, inbetween our concern about Jasmine’s blood pressure.
Neil did a stella job yesterday of changing Jasmine’s sterile dressing which covers her PD catheter exit site in her abdomen. It looked absolutely fantastic and very neat.
This morning we got up early to walk down to the GOSH Outpatients Clinic via St Pancras for a nice breakfast, after a hectic night: Jasmine vomited at 3am, 5am, 5.30am and 7am.
It was a busy morning in clinics. Jasmine was weighed (4.82kgs) and measured (59cms) and her blood pressure taken (82). They are still concerned about the extra fluid she has on board, so the dietician has reduced her milk intake to 500mls and concentrated the recipe. Hopefully, this will help her overnight vomiting as she had been doing so well. Unfortunately, since our last clinic she has vomited more than usual and hasn’t put on any weight. It is a balancing act of giving her enough nourishment to grow and enough dialysis to clean her blood and take off the excess fluid without making her sick. The renal team at clinic have to constantly tweak things to keep up with her development and to encourage her to grow.
Part way through our appointment we went to the Cardiac Department inside GOSH where Jasmine had her heart examined. It was very busy because they had a shortage of technicians, so we had a bit of a wait.
Some mothers may say that they know their children inside out. With Jasmine, I have taken it to a new level. Today, I saw inside her heart and watched the blood flow through the chambers when she had her echocardiogram. When she was a GOSH in-patient I looked at cross-sections of her brain and watched the blood flow through the large veins in her head when she had an ultrasound on her skull. At home, I regularly inspect the contents of her stomach via her NG tube. I know my daughter, scarily well.
During the echocardiogram, the technician said that Jasmine’s heart looked fine, but we will find out the extended results tomorrow or the day after.
After our visit to the Cardiac Department we went back round to the clinic and Jasmine’s had her bloods done and then we popped up to the ward to say hello and return a blood pressure cuff that we had borrowed whilst we were all investigating cuffs and different readings and ambulatory cuffs the other week. They were very busy today and had five babies in there. One of the nurses said that it felt more like a creche. The nurses on night duty have been very busy with five babies crying altogether.
We finally left the hospital and went for a late lunch and then got the bus home. It is hot today so Jasmine is lying in her cot having a well deserved snooze.
Thanks so much for the lovely card of your pin-up daughter. I don’t have an email address to send you a personal thank you, but must ask Peter and Angela to forward something. I don’t know how you find time to write thank-yous especially for such a tiny easter bunny! Love to all, Pat