The biggest news by far this week is that Lemon took his first few unsupported steps on Sunday afternoon. I was out for frozen custard with a friend, and something caught his eye across the seating area. Like Wile E. Coyote, he did just fine until he looked at his feet and realized what was going on, at which point he promptly sat down and hasn't walked an unsupported step since, despite significant parental encouragement. So, unfortunately, Papa Bear hasn't witnessed this new milestone yet, but hopefully soon Lemon will have enough confidence to perform his new trick on a regular basis. Yes, video to follow!
This week, we also got back the results of all the various bloodwork that Lemon had done at his one year checkup. Overall, things are pretty good. His liver enzymes are a little high, but that is pretty normal for a kid with CF. His vitamins A and E, two of the vitamins in his delicious AquADEKs, were at the high end of the normal range, which is great. Vitamin D, on the other hand, not so much. He's still just below the low end of the normal range.
So, now we're supposed to give him 2mL/day of the AquADEKs, and a further 3mL of D-Vi-Sol (the regular infant vitamin D drops) for a total of five times the normal dose for a kid his age. For anyone who's counting, that's a pretty large volume of vitamins for a little guy. Luckily he's still in a pretty compliant developmental stage. We also learned that his iron is a little low. He's not anemic but definitely at the low end of the normal range. We've introduced spinach and yet another delicious vitamin (Fer-In-Sol) which are by far the nastiest tasting of the lot if you asked me.
Other than those little things, all seems to be well with Lemon physically. He's sticking to his growth curve in more or less the 25th percentile, and his nutritionist conceded that maybe her idea of having him really bulk up by drinking two cans a day of Pediasure was unrealistic. His throat culture was normal again, phew. So, we'll just keep on keeping on for the moment. He has to gain about another kilogram before his enzymes will need to be adjusted again, and we're hoping he'll achieve that by his next doctor's visit, auspiciously scheduled for Halloween.
In the mean time we're gearing up for a very special weekend next weekend--a belated birthday visit from Grandma C and Grandpa D, coming in all the way from New York City. I'm sure if Lemon were capable of comprehending it, he'd be very excited!
