No answers but positive appointment.

I feel like I've been beat with a whip. :)

The ultrasound went great. Mercedes slept through it. I attempted to. :)

Then we went across the street to the Endo's office. We didn't get any answers today, but we did get a positive update. The dr. was able to view the ultrasound & the good news is Mercedes does have a thyroid & it looks normal. They still are unable to tell us if this is a temporary condition or lifelong. Time will tell. Every 2 months we have to go back to the hospital for a check up & bloodwork to monitor her numbers. She definitely will be on medication until at least age 3. Reason being, as I mentioned before, the thyroid is crucial to brain development. At age 3, the brain is developed & it's not as important. They might try to wean her at that time, but it all depends on how the next 3 years go. This year she goes every 2 months. Next year it's every 3 months. Funny...in 7 years we have never been downtown to Cook Children's. Since Mercedes came we are learning the hospital very well. :)

Then we went down another floor for the lab work. This was a horrible experience! The PKU bloodwork is always taken out of the baby's foot. When we went for lab work to test strictly the thyroid, they attempted to get the blood out of her arm (because a greater amount is necessary) but had a very difficult time finding her tiny veins. However, after several attempts & more experienced nurses, they were successful. Today they were not. They hurt my baby today! They couldn't find the veins in either of her arms or wrists, so then another nurse was called. This was after they had already poked my baby & actually did hit a vein, but the blood stopped flowing. The other nurse didn't even attempt it because Mercedes' veins are just too tiny. So, they had no choice but to get the blood out of her foot. Which took forever because it is a drip by drip "flow" & they literally had to consistently squeeze her foot with all their might. It was horrible! The nurse who did it had so much of Mercedes' blood everywhere, I actually had to get in the medical drawer to hand her some supplies. Awful. Hubby knew something was wrong because we were in the back & he was getting nervous. Not to mention trying to control two totally impatient wee ones. :)

Her weight today was 10 lbs something oz. I forgot to write it down. Her weight gain has slowed down a tad. Whew! Her length is 21 inches. She is 50% in both areas so she's still just perfect. :)

The other good news is that they really believe we did catch this in time. If she was, say, 3 months old, & we were just going in for our first visit, then they would probably assume she would have some developmental delays. But because we got her there within 5 weeks, hopefully she'll be right on target & have no delay in milestones. This "congenital hypothyroidism" (I hope I spelled that right...too tired to look) is the only issue where medication can actually & completely prevent mental retardation. The NP said she has seen children born with no thyroid at all, have their elevations in the 900's (Mercedes' is 17.something), yet on this medication they are not delayed one bit. So that is very encouraging news. :)

The lab work will be in next week. Mercedes' number won't be "normal" yet because she has only been on the medication for 2 weeks - but they want to make sure the number is coming down. And even though we pretty much have to stand her on her head (literally) & struggle with her the entire time (this particular medication is extremely chaulky & she hates it), I make darn tootin' sure every bit of the medication hits the tummy. 99% of the time it has so I feel confident there will be a change in the number.

Other than that they said she is thriving in our home (well, of course she is! :) & she looks great. We shall return the end of April. :)