On Friday, Lemon had his follow-up with the gastroenterologist to talk about his liver. The first thing we learned at that appointment is that Lemon has lost a pound and a half relative to his weight in JUNE. That's 4 months of not gaining a thing and instead losing ground. Partly because of when we tried cutting back on tube feeds when we began food school, and partly from him being at least somewhat sick pretty much non-stop since school started, which forces us to keep the overnight feed volumes low. Now that we have this latest cold more or less under control, we are in full-court-press mode to try and get weight back on. That means 3.5 cartons of formula at night plus 100mL bolus feeds morning and night. It's a lot of formula, syringes, and fuss, but we've got to make up some ground while we can, since winter hasn't even started yet.
The next thing we learned from the GI doc was that he wanted us to start on a new medication, usrodiol, that may slow down or prevent damage to Lemon's liver. We started the ursodiol today, and we'll re-run the liver panel when we do his annual labs in December to see if it's having any effect. It better be, because a one month supply costs us $90 out of pocket (for a generic medication!).
When we got back from the appointment, I dashed over to our local Enterprise and picked up a rental car, and on Saturday morning I drove down to Des Moines, where I met up with an old buddy from Boston. We bummed around Des Moines on Saturday afternoon and were very favorably impressed by it. On Sunday, we ran the Des Moines marathon together, capping off the 2017 running season with a personal best for me, 4:05. I didn't quite manage to break the 4:00 barrier this time around, but I think it was by far the strongest marathon I've ever run, and I have high hopes for the 2018 season. In the mean time, I'm looking forward to the off season, where I can run a little less and spend a little more time on other pursuits. Many thanks to Papa Bear, Nona, and the rest of our crew for taking such good care of the maniacs while I was away!
I'll definitely kick off the off-season in style this week, because no sooner did I return from Des Moines this morning then Papa Bear took off for a week in Greece for a conference and some sight-seeing. I'm sure I'll be doing plenty of running around over the next week, although most of it will be chasing after the dream team, rather than endless laps of the neighborhoods of Madison!
