Status – three years later

I stumbled upon a couple of Bjarki’s medical status updates from 2007 the other day.  The first one, from 26 August 2007, listed the seven diagnoses he had on his chart at that time,  and the second, from 13 November 2007, revisited those diagnoses.  I therefore figured it was high time to revisit his ‘medical issues’ to see what had happened since.

1) Chronic Lung Disease: He was discharged from special pulmonary observation last June, having shown that he’s growing normally (he’s pretty much on the 50% growth line for his real age, slightly above for his adjusted age) and does not run out of breath even though he’s active all day.  It does take him a little long to clear coughing bugs but his (very probable) lung scarring does not seem to bother him on a day to day basis.  He does not seem to get sicker more or more often that any regular daycare-attending kid (knock on wood, as he’s currently at home with a fever).

2) Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD):  We finally stopped giving him anti-acids this past fall (September-ish) after keeping him on them pretty much since birth.  We did it as a trial to prep for a proper stomach acid/reflux test but when he tolerated being off the drugs so well (for the first time), we decided to cancel the test and wait-and-see.  So far his appetite is ok, and he does not complain of being in pain so we think the GER has finally resolved itself (around the age of three!).

3) Apnea of prematurity (AOP): No longer an issue, Bjarki’s brain now remembers to breathe.

4) Anemia of prematurity: No longer an issue, although it’s been years since his blood was drawn.

5) Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT): No longer an issue, and hasn’t been tested for years. No tachycardia episodes were seen at the hospital after he came off his medication.

6) Osteopenia of prematurity: Status unknown.

7) Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP):  The ROP resolved itself, but he ended up having surgery on both eyes to fix his strabismus (being cross-eyed) in April 2010.  The operation went really well, and we noticed straight away that Bjarki stopped moving his head rapidly from side to side when running (like he was sampling the road ahead with one eye at a time to get depth of field) and now he runs with a still head.  He also started liking being on the swings, but they were a source of terror before.  I guess having 3D-vision is actually quite important!  At his last eye check-up his vision was normal (may have a touch of astigmatism) and he does not wear or need glasses at this point.