Hanging out with friends

At Ryan and Keri's for dinner Sunday night

Lia's First Game Day!

We had fun watching our teams play (and win!!) the first weekend of football season and enjoying that extra day off work for Philip. Lia got all dressed up in her game day gear to cheer for Auburn with Mama and Tennessee with Daddy. She looked adorable! Here are some pictures:

Update after doctor

We went to the gastro specialist this morning, and I feel so much better after talking to him. He confirmed that Lia does have a milk protein allergy. He said about 5% of babies have it and most grow out of it in 6 or 7 months. In the mean time, in order to keep breastfeeding I will have to keep dairy, soy, eggs and nuts out of my diet. We will also continue using the Alimentum formula for those times when Daddy gives Lia a bottle. We will continue to monitor her poopy diapers for blood (yesterday and today have been clear.) If it comes back and doesn't go away or if she has any other symptoms that concern us, we'll take her back in. I am glad he told me I could be a little less strict with my diet, I am gonna have a hamburger tomorrow while we watch football (with no cheese or mayo of course!!) So, we are breathing a sigh of relief that we got good news today and that we aren't dealing with anything more serious. Now, all we have to do is get Miller healed and we can all move forward. We have to give him his first injections tonight, I am dreading it, wish us luck!!

Lia - Gastro specialist tomorrow

We were able to get in with a private practice gastro specialist at 8 in the morning. Our other appointment wasn't until the 25th, so I am really glad that Philip was able to get us this appointment sooner. After 4 days with no blood, on Tuesday it came back and we have had a couple days now with blood in the diapers again. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what I did differently on Tuesday that could have caused it to come back. The only thing I can really come up with (besides eating corn, which I just can't believe is the culprit because its the first ingredient in her hypoallergenic formula) was getting a flu shot. Flu shots contain egg, so maybe that triggered it. I don't know, but I am just anxious to talk with a doctor who knows all about this and can give us some answers. I will post as soon as we get some news, hopefully we will learn something at this visit in the morning. Here are a couple new pictures of my girl showing her pretty hair. It's curly when its wet right after her bath and then its all pouffy when it dries. It's so cute! We were able to put one of her clip in bows in the other day too! I really hope her hair doesn't fall out, I just love it!! Plus she would look funny bald : )

Miller

Well we got the results back on Miller's infection and it turns out that the bacteria he has is too strong for the general antibiotic he was taking with his food twice a day. Instead we now have to give him 2 injections (one is the antibiotic, the other is a bag of fluids to prevent kidney failure from the strong antibiotics) every day for 10 days. Philip went today and learned how to give Miller the shot and the fluid and he will teach me so that I can do it next week when he is out of town for work - yikes! After 5 days, we'll take Miller to our vet for blood work to check his kidney functions and make sure the antibiotic isn't damaging them. Then at the end of the antibiotics, we will take him back to the surgery center for another evaluation. Dr. Beale told Philip today that due to the type of bacteria, he is probably going to recommend that once the leg is completely healed, we go back in and remove the plate because this bacteria likes to hide between the plate and the bone and could cause further infections going forward. So by removing the plate one the bones are healed we'll take away that chance of continuous reinfection. So, yep, that means another surgery. I am at the end of my rope with this whole thing and although I know we had no choice I am wishing that we would've at least waited to do this surgery until Lia was a little older, but what's done is done. I just hope that this new antibiotic works and that we don't have any other obstacles to deal with before the next surgery. Not sure yet when that will be, but probably not until December because we have travel plans in October and November and won't be able to board him if he's still recovering. We will see what the doctor recommends as far as timing for the plate removal goes...

Miller Update

Some of you have been asking how Miller is doing, so I thought I should post an update. Unfortunately, we ran into a little difficulty last week.

He stopped putting weight on his leg altogether and it began swelling. We took him in to the surgery center and they aspirated the fluid which was tested for infection and took xrays to make sure that the metal plates/screws had not slipped. They also told us that he was running a fever. Luckily, the xrays showed that the plates/screws were still holding in place (we were so worried that we were going to have to operate again if this was the problem) but they also revealed new fractures in two different bones in his leg. The vet said this could have happened slipping on our tile floor. They put a full cast back on his leg and told us that he has to stay in our bedroom (carpeted) at all times for the next 3 weeks. He also went back on a general antibiotic while we awaited the test results. He stopped eating, so we were spoon feeding him anything he would take a bite of to get something in his stomach so the antibiotics wouldn't make him sick.

Then, on Sunday night fluid starting coming through the cast and the emergency vet told us to cut it off ourselves, which we did at midnight. Philip took him straight in the next morning. His fluid test results were positive for infection. We will know tomorrow what kind of infection it is and if we need to switch to another antibiotic to fight the specific infection that he has. The swelling has moved from his knee to his ankle, so we now have to apply a warm compress to his ankle for 15 minutes 3-4 times a day.

The good news is that the fever has gone down and he has eaten great his last two meals (we are mixing canned food in with the dry he normally gets and that seems to be more enticing to him.) So, we will re-evaluate based on the test results tomorrow and go from there. For now, he's wearing the cone on his head again and we are keeping a VERY close eye on him to make sure he doesn't do anything to make his leg even worse. He really is a good boy and even feeling as bad as he does with two fractures, an infection, and a healing incision from surgery he still does anything you ask him to do! We love our Miller!!

Running errands with Mama

Today, Mama decided to take me with her to run a couple of errands. We went to the dry cleaners first and I slept the whole time in my car seat. Next we went to Walgreens where Mama got her flu shot and I got my picture taken for my passport application (I got dressed up and decided to wear a bow for the picture!) I woke up for that part since Mama had to hold my head up for the photo. Here is a picture of me getting ready to go: