Potassium worries

We went to clinic yesterday morning and they seemed pleased with Jasmine’s progress, which was great as I had been stressing about the fact that Jasmine has lost weight this week. However, she has grown about two centimetres in a month, so that is a good amount. She is back on the 2nd centile, as she was slipping off the chart and it was a bit of a worry. There was another baby getting his bloods done just before Jasmine and he was huge in comparison to my little baby girl! Still, she is growing which is the main thing.

They increased Jasmine’s feed in a big way which is great and we have swapped from SMA to Cow & Gate, because SMA in the concentrated doses we now need provides too much Vitamin A. So, with this new formula hopefully Jasmine can start ‘putting the beef on’ as my mother would say.

We got home late afternoon and then got a phone call from GOSH, Jasmine’s potassium levels were way too high and it was a bit of a worry. So, they invited to us to go to GOSH on Wednesday morning to repeat the blood test because it seemed so strange that her potassium was so high and her calcium low and generally, the results didn’t tally.

We then had a bit of a bad night as Jasmine’s alarms went off hourly through the night until 4am and then we had a break until 6am when it went off again and then at 7am someone rang us up – wrong number. This morning Jasmine and I were taking turns to vomit, until I felt loads better and used the brief window of opportunity to rush about and get the machine ready for tonight and do all the other things around the house until the sickness set back in.

GOSH rang this afternoon as they had managed to use the extra blood they had taken from Jasmine, as her blood was coming out really well yesterday – as sometimes it is a bit of struggle to get everything they need from her tiny veins – to repeat some of the tests and her potassium came back fine and her calcium was just a tad on the low side which means she is putting it in her bones. I was so relieved. So, we don’t have to go back to GOSH tomorrow. Her other blood results – urea, creatinine, iron, etc., – are looking ok. And with her extra dose of epotein she is quite energetic, which is lovely to watch everyday.

Today she was on her new super high powered Cow & Gate with loads of maxijul and vitapro and she managed beautifully. She is still on the doidy cup as she hasn’t needed the NG tube yet and she managed all of her extra feeds and more – since she was doing a bit of vomiting – and I must replace what she loses. Hopefully, she will get used to the new super feed and her vomiting will calm down as she did about a third more vomiting today than she usually does.

Jasmine spent some of the morning lying on the floor arching her back and some of it trashing her baby gym and then the rest of it sitting next to me on the settee whilst we watched the American Elections getting underway. It was difficult to completely hear as Jasmine was singing very loudly for at least an hour and staring at me whilst she was singing, which was very funny. Later on we went for a walk and Jasmine was singing in her buggy and waved back at one of the guys who works in our building. She is just fabulous and her little gummy smile makes me cry with joy.

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