Genetics Appointment

Owen had a follow up genetics appointment a few weeks ago.  We're continuing to do these appointments at the Lowell clinic every 3-6 months.  Our geneticist, Dr. Kahler, is still not traveling to Lowell so we saw Dr. Garnica again.  

Appointment Stats:

Weight - 33 lbs 1 oz 

Height - 37 inches tall

Head Circumference - 30

The appointment went as usual...we met with the geneticist, a nutritionist, and then had labs drawn.  Dr. Garnica was a little concerned about Owen's labs from August.  Apparently two of his labs were high, but only slightly too high.  This was news to us and kinda frustrating since the report we got in August was that everything looked good.  After talking with our crew at ACH, it was explained that the increase could have been due to a number of things and that they weren't too concerned because they were only 1-2 points too high....which made us feel a lot better.  The lab results came back about 1.5 weeks after the appointment and both were 30 points less than the labs in August, indicating that his liver is functioning normally...or "normal" for Owen.  Yay!

Josh and I have been a little concerned about Owen's excessive sweating, so we mentioned it to Dr. Garnica.  Owen frequently wakes up with a large circle of sweat on his pillow and completely drenched.  He also seems to sweat excessively, to the point that his head is soaked, with minimal activity.  This is not necessarily a new thing, but we've noticed it a lot more lately and thought it was worth mentioning.  So....after some thought, Dr. Garnica seems to think that Owen might be hypoglycemic during these times of excessive sweating...and now wants us to start checking his blood sugar during the night for a few weeks.  They sent us home with everything we need....but we have not started the testing.  Everything with Owen is kind of an experiment.  He's still the only one is Arkansas with VLCAD and Dr. Kahler is the only geneticist in Arkansas that has seen VLCAD patients other than Owen.  So...we decided to hold off on testing until we were able to talk everything over with Dr. Kahler.  We just really don't want to put Owen through anything else, unless it is completely necessary.  Hopefully Dr. Kahler will get back with us in the next week or so and have a plan for us moving forward.