Thursday, August 18, 2011

Dentist visit and blood draws



Well we took Ava took a dentist appt on Tuesday and her teeth look good, they just need to finish coming in!  They are all pretty much poked through, but several are resting right at the gumline.  The dentist explained that most kiddos encourage things along by chewing on toys and eating and such.  Since Ava can't do that she depends on us to give her gums stimulation with tooth brushing, gum massage, etc.  It just sucks because she has tooth pain A LOT, and I hate giving her tylenol and motrin all the time.  They want to see her every 6 months now for regular cleanings.

As for the blood draw, that ws horrible by the way.  They have to fill 2 pipets with capillary blood from her finger tip, so they 'milk' her finger for blood until they are full.  Ugghh..  Can you say big crocodile tears?  Poor baby.  So the results of this will tell us how much CO2 is in her blood, which will tell us what to do with her vent settings.  If her CO2 is low, which her pulmonologist suspects, it is likely due to her breathing too fast during the day and basically hyperventilating.  Which would explain why she allows the vent to breathe for her at night.  CO2 is your body's respiratory regulator, so if your CO2 is too low your breathing slows down because your body things there is too much oxygen..  Our bodies are amazing machines aren't they? 

So anyhoo, Ava is doing well.  Nothing major healthwise to report except her muscle tone continues to give her problems. 

I am busily working on fundraiser stuff so we can get that rolling.  I am so excited about the fundraiser, it's just been hard to focus with everything going on with Aohdan and his autism diagnosis.  Just gotta suck it up and keep on truckin! 

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