Duke Docs & UNC Basketball

We just returned home from a two-day Duke bonanza. Carter had several appointments and test over a two-day period so we chose to spend the night in a hotel and make it a mini-vacation. The highlights from the Duke appointments:

• We saw Dr. Barker, Carter's wonderful Cardiologist, who has followed him since our very first fetal echocardiogram almost a year ago. We got the fantastic news from Dr. Barker that all of Carter's heart issues have cleared up! There were no more signs of aortic thrombus (medical speak for "blood clots"), which were the result of ECMO. His heart is still shifted mid-line and not on the right like most of our hearts, but it's functioning well, which is all that matters.
  
• We were so proud of Carter because Dr. Barker ordered a sedation echocardiogram because babies typically need sedation to be able to sit completely still for the test. But, our big boy kicked back on the exam table, watched "Baby Einstein" and didn't require any sedation.


• The visit went so well, in fact, that we are CLEARED from Cardiology! This means that Carter will no longer be followed by Cardiology. It's a teeny bit sad because we really like Dr. Barker, but we can always visit him when we're at Duke.


• Our Clinic visit (check up with Neonatology) went well, too. They are pleased with how healthy he is and how he's chunking up.


• Carter now weighs 18 pounds and is 28 1/2 inches long, which puts him around 20% for weight and 50% for length.


• We re-visited the Gtube issue because some of the Neonatologists don't want him to have an NG beyond a year of age, which only gives us 3 months to make A LOT of feeding progress


• The big news....drumroll....Carter has gained so much weight that we were given the ok to drop an NG feed! WOO HOO! We were feeding him 8 times a day (every 3 hours) but now we can drop to 7 feeds a day (we'll drop from 5 to 4 NG feeds and keep the other 3 PO/by mouth feeds at night). We are slowly, but surely, weaning from the NG tube!


• Carter was started on Duocal, which is a tasteless calorie supplement, that we can begin to add to the baby food he eats. This will help boost his calories and possibly enable us to drop anothe NG feed.
  

We spent last weekend at Duke and then 2 days this week, which was getting to be a bit too much Duke for this Carolina girl, so we took Carter to the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill (where I went to Undergrad and finished law school). The first thing I had to show him was the Dean Dome, which is the legendary Basketball Arena for the UNC Tarheels. The University has recently built a Basketball Museum (which is free if you are interested in visiting) adjacent to the Dean Dome. We had a great time introducing Carter to the legend that is UNC Basketball. The best part was when Carter saw a video of Roy Williams ~ he started smiling and clapping!

Going down the hill to the Dean Dome

Carter's first time Rushing The Court!

I love this! So sorry, Duke :)2009 Tournament Trophies! Those shoes are as big as CarterHey Brad, they call it Chapel HILL for a reason. (notice that I got to push the stroller down the hill, but Brad had to push it back up)

Carter's first hotel stay
And to top off a great visit, we were able to see Christopher (another CDH and ECMO survivor)