June 10, 2010 - Unexpected Oxygen Saturations

Hi. Monday's appointment on 6/7 up in Milwaukee for Caden was a little disappointing. At the hypoplastic clinic appointments you meet with Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech therapists and the doctor who works specifically with congenital heart kids. All the therapist have there scales in which they rate him on various skills and tasks. The highlight was that he isn't too far behind except for Expressive Language.

Caden is about 15 months and they rated him:

Growth
22 lbs (yeah!)
30 3/4 length
18" head size
Bayley Test Scores (age equilvalent)
Coginitive Play - 13 mo
Fine motor skills - 12 mo
Gross motor - 11 mo
Receptive Language - 13 mo
Expressive Language (talking) - 9 mo.

All in all they weren't too concerned except for the expressive language. They would like us to get him started in speech thearpy to get him caught up in the meantime. We orginally had the birth-3 program come out when Caden was a baby but I think we are going to choose to go to an outside therapist as the process is so delayed and I would like to get a jump-start while I'm home for the summer. Caden still isn't walking but they said that was from his weak trunk strength (which they weren't concerned or surprised). The bad news of the appointment is that Caden's oxygen saturations are lower. Caden normally ranges between 82-84%. You and I would range between 98%-100%. Caden's oxygen saturations had fallen to 76%. This could explain the extra fatigue we have seen with Caden or possible it is something else. Obviously David and I are concerned because the first thing that comes to our mind is more surgery because something isn't working with his Glenn heart procedure. We are hoping to hear other news as the cardiologist wants to see Caden this week so we are making a trip back to Wisconsin today to find out what this means for Caden. We will keep you posted.

Love,
Melissa