Discharged

Levi is feeling much better.  This has been a very good stay.  We have addressed the issues of the bloody vomit, concerns over the feeding tube, congestion, and cerebral palsy.  I'm sure I've mentioned that Levi throws his hands out, reminiscent of a newborn's fear of falling.  He's been doing that for about three months. He does it in different situations, so we haven't been able to correlate it to anything in particular.  We saw the neurologist who specializes in CP, Dr. Goretsky.  He said these movements are caused by CP, and will happen when Levi is excited, mad, scared, trying to reach or be functional with his hands.  It's because he is not neurologically mature enough to be able to coordinate his muscle movements smoothly.  We are increasing Baclofen from 15 mg a day to 22.5 mg a day over the course of the next two weeks.  This should help with any pain he's having from muscle tightness (spasticity) and also with the arm movements. 

Oddly enough, the increase in Baclofen could help with the bowel movement issues.  Dr. Rosenblum said that it is possible some of the problems are caused by spasticity of the anal sphincter.  Maybe he can't coordinate relaxing that muscle to allow stool to pass.  That makes sense.  Also, Baclofen is being used experimentally to treat constipation.  How wonderful would that be?!  Since he has started the new laxative, Lactolose, he has been able to pass gas, which was very rare before.  I'm praying with the combinations of these two meds that he will achieve stooling on his own, and we might not need to visit the motility clinic in Cincinnati.