I apologize for not writing any sooner but things around here have been crazy.  Arran is now seeing some new specialists.  He is seeing the doctors at the Growth and Nutrition Clinic (all part of U. of MD) and next week he will be seeing a gastrointerologist (GI) specialist.  He has been given a new prescription that is to help reduce the number of times that he is throwing up.  So far it is actually working.  He had been throwing up on the average twice a day, now he is averaging twice a week.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.  He has also gotten his pictures taken and we will put those new pictures up within the week. This coming week he will see a cardiologist, the growth and nutrition doctors, a GI specialist, and his orthopedic surgeon. As you can see we are extremely busy keeping appointments and trying to live a "normal" life.  We just wanted to say thanks to all of those people who are helping us through all of this by watching Patrick or going to Drs. appointments with us or keeping us in your prayers. Thanks so much.

October 3, 2000
 

Arran had his 6 month up check up today.  He weighs 6 pounds 1 and 3/4 ounces.  This has been his official weight without casts for the last 3 weeks now.  Today he received three shots and his is right now a little warm and very sleepy.  The doctor did not have much to say today because Arran hasn't been doing much lately.  We have an appointment made for him to see a growth and nutrition specialist because he is not growing.  He has been classified as a failure to thrive baby because he isn't getting in (and keeping in) enough calories to grow.  Plus we don't know that he would be growing at a normal rate any way because of his condition.  So we are off to Baltimore on October 17th to see a new set of specialists.  He has had blood work since the last time I updated this site and everything looked fine with that test.  He also went to see his orthopedic specialist yesterday and his splints are working out nicely and his legs and feet look good.  They are still a little tight and we need to do some stretching exercises with him but he doesn't mind them.  Also today we received in the mail his bill from the 5 weeks he spent in the hospital NICU when he was born.  The total bill was $48,850.57 our insurance says that they are going to cover all of that. Thank goodness.