Well we rocketed through the testing that the doctor wanted us to do plus got to go see endocrinology. Usually it takes 3-4 months to get an initial appointment with endocrine but I asked a few favors and because I have a good relationship with Luke's medical home clinic team at Arkansas Children's Hospital, and they were able to get Luke in within a week of asking. That is a miracle in itself! The results? Well everything was NORMAL! Glad for that but again sort of wishing we could have found a reason why it takes such an enormous amount of calories to maintain Luke's weight. We have him on 1400 calories a day from his formula and are finally getting him to grow. That 1400 calories doesn't include what he eats by mouth every day too..which is almost another 200-300 calories. When he got weighed on Thursday he was just shy of 27 lbs!! He has never weighed that much!
The doctors felt good about proceeding with the clinical trial so we have started the crucial point in the trial.....I am SOOOO NERVOUS. I try not to think about the what ifs and pray about the positives and the outcome we are expecting. For Luke to start eating everything and not needing tube feeds anymore.
This is what we are doing:
Friday: We started the appetite stimulant. It is not FDA approved for children and only given to adults but they are using it in the study.
Tuesday: (5/20) We start weaning off his formula. It is only one hour a day so it won't really catch up with him for a couple days but the goal is to be completely off his tube feeds by June 4th! Scary times!!
The results they are seeing in the clinical trial kids are they just start eating.They call it "the flip". As the formula intake decreases the kids make it up by eating more. The doctor and I are both concerned about his weight since he needs an abnormally high amount of calories to keep weight on. They expect clinical trial participants to lose about 10% of body weight and then start gaining it back. If he continues to lose past 10% then he will have to be started back on formula and the clinical trial will be over. That is the part I am so scared about and praying about. I want him to triumph over his feeding issues and move past this time in his life. I would love to post in 6-9 months that we are getting rid of his feeding tube forever!
Luke has a friend named P. P was Luke's feeding tube friend. They both had feeding tubes and love to get together to play. Jack usually asks if he can get a feeding tube when all three of them are together as he feels left out! Well P got his feeding tube taken permanently out 2 weeks ago!! YEAH P! It is funny though because Luke will now say "P is not my tube buddy anymore" and he is so sad. We take that opportunity to encourage him and tell him that if he would start eating more then he could get his tube out too like P. He says OK and then runs off to play!
Another "issue" we are praying about is that we enrolled the boys in 4yr old kindergarten! The issue is that they do not provide nursing for the 4yr kindergarten since it is not a state mandated program. No nursing means no tube feeds for Luke. If he is not eating and requiring tube feeds then he can't go. We decided to step out in faith and enroll them in the class with the expectation that he is going to do amazing with the clinical trial and not need tube feeds this fall.
Now is the time we need all the extra prayers we can get! I appreciate all the encouragement and notes from people praying for him and know that we have our prayer warriors out there! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Major changes these next couple weeks and I am holding my breath!
