Liam had his follow up doctor's appointment yesterday. The good news is that all the craziness of the past few days seems to be nothing more than a growth or development phase. Infants have 7 heavy development phases in the first 12 months and 4 of those happen in the first 4 months. According to the doctor these times will disrupt schedules, make the infants frantic, and make personalities more intense.
Liam is now 10 pounds 12 oz (4876 grams), which means he put on another pound in 12 days. The doctor said if he had seen Liam for the first time yesterday he never would have known he was a preemie born at 33 weeks.
The only item we are still watching is Liam's liver. His bilirubin level is still elevated. (Bilirubin is the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism. Heme is formed from hemoglobin, a principal component of red blood cells. Bilirubin is excreted in bile, and its levels are elevated in certain diseases. It is responsible for the yellow colour of bruises and the yellow discolouration in jaundice.)
The doctor said his level is not at the point he is worried, but he wants a GI specialist to have a look just to make sure everything with his liver is in order. The doctor seems to think Liam has a 'sluggish liver' which is very common in preemies. Since the liver has to start working early it takes it a little longer to really kick in. Main factors for a sluggish liver are: 1) premature birth, 2) blood transfusions at birth, and 3) being breasted. Since Liam has all 3 the doctor isn't too concerned; he just wants to be safe. So at some point over the next week we should get a referral to a specialist for some follow up tests.
Please pray that this is nothing more serious that a sluggish liver.
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