6 month Check Up & New Findings
So we went in for Bailey's 6month check up today!!! She is really growing by leaps and bounds. My big girl is not an itty bitty baby anymore!!!
First the Stats!!!!
She is 17 pounds 4 oz and 26 inches....her weight is in the 75th Percentile, her head is in the 50th percentile and her length is 50-75 percentile!!! She is doing great!!!
She got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine. She was none too happy about that...but Daddy was there to rescue her and give her big cuddles and lots of kisses. I swear she redefines the title of "daddy's girl". They are just pitiful together. He actually wanted to wait in the waiting room during the shots because he can't stand to see her upset...I'm such a bully, I called him a chicken and made him stay put!!! Once she had her Daddy...all was right with the world!!
Her legs are sore but otherwise she's in pretty good spirits; being her typical happy noisy self!!! Her brother gives her the most amusement!!
Now down to the nitty gritty of the appointment. I was still concerned about the way she holds her right arm and its position. She always has it extended with the wrist turned outwards and fist closed. I've never seen a baby do this before and I noticed it almost right away after birth. I mentioned it to my pediatricians but for some reason they didn't take it seriously and never even wrote it in her chart as a concern of mine. Each time I mentioned it...two fo the doctors I was seeing consistently didn't seem that worried...so each time I let it go.
But now she is six months old and the arm still does that...as well as the fact that now it seems to have a delay compared to the other arm. She grabs things and holds things just fine but her reach seems a little struggled, weaker and slower than the other arm.
Today we saw doctor Wood...who is the only doctor in that entire group who caught her heart murmur; so I asked him about it since its still a concern of mine. I picked Bailey up and put her up on my shoudler and showed him what I was talking about...he agreed with me that there is some reason to be concerned there.
He said he has a suspicion that she has a condition called a brachial plexus injury which is also called BPP (Brachial Plexus Palsy). It is nerve damage suffered during delivery from being pulled out of the birth canal that starts at the spinal cord and goes down the arm into the hand/fingers.
According to the mayo clinic who has a whole ward dedicated to this type of injury/problem says that:
"The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that comes from the spinal cord and controls muscle movements and sensation in the shoulder, arm and hand. Traumatic injuries to this network — most commonly caused by accidents or by childbirth (Erb's palsy or obstetrical brachial plexus) — can leave the arm useless.
So he is referring us to a pediatric neurologist because she seems to fall into the category called upper plexus palsy (C5-C7) kids with this keep the arm adducted and internally rotated with the elbow extended, forearm pronated, wrist flexed, and the hand in a fist.
This should have been caught in the nursery after her birth but the pedatricians there missed it and my doctors up until I saw Dr. Wood ignored it. So this could have been diagnosed and fixed before now had the right people been paying attention and had someone actually listened to the parents!!! But doctors seem to have a god-complex (Surprise there) and just don't think us parents know anything about our own children!!! We're all stupid paranoid wack jobs I guess!!!
I am waiting for a call back from DuPont Children's Hospital in Delaware. Their neurologist come highly recommended and Chop wouldn't see her til December so I just hung up on them and called DuPont. Once hearing her age and what my pediatrician suspects they wanted to see her right away even though they originally told me they weren't taking new patients. So that gave me a little bit of alarm but also at the same time made me feel good knowing that they're making her a priority.
They are trying to get us an appointment in their newtown office for her evauluation so we aren't driving all the way to delaware for the consult. Should she need any testing, treatment, surgeries or anything of that nature she'll go down to DE at DuPont Children's Hospital. The first step is to get her seen so I am waiting for a call back from them to see how soon they can get us in at that closer location.
For now we just wait and take this one step at a time and PRAY that its nothing and maybe just weak muscle tone or something that will heal itself. She remains just perfect loving happy Bailey to us. She loves her tummy time on the floor with her brother....she jumps like a crazy person in her jumperoo laughing all the while and she is just a joy and a delight in our lives. Her and her brother are the world to us and that will never change!!! She is sitting unassisted more and more ever day, rolls around the floor and is ready to take off on the crawling. She scoots and rocks herself all over the floor!!!
I'll keep everyone updated as more information becomes available and as we see the doctors and learn more!!!
INFO LINKS BELOW ON THIS BPP
http://www.mayoclinic.org/brachial-plexus/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/brachial-plexus/erbs-palsy.html
http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic215.htm
First the Stats!!!!
She is 17 pounds 4 oz and 26 inches....her weight is in the 75th Percentile, her head is in the 50th percentile and her length is 50-75 percentile!!! She is doing great!!!
She got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine. She was none too happy about that...but Daddy was there to rescue her and give her big cuddles and lots of kisses. I swear she redefines the title of "daddy's girl". They are just pitiful together. He actually wanted to wait in the waiting room during the shots because he can't stand to see her upset...I'm such a bully, I called him a chicken and made him stay put!!! Once she had her Daddy...all was right with the world!!
Her legs are sore but otherwise she's in pretty good spirits; being her typical happy noisy self!!! Her brother gives her the most amusement!!
Now down to the nitty gritty of the appointment. I was still concerned about the way she holds her right arm and its position. She always has it extended with the wrist turned outwards and fist closed. I've never seen a baby do this before and I noticed it almost right away after birth. I mentioned it to my pediatricians but for some reason they didn't take it seriously and never even wrote it in her chart as a concern of mine. Each time I mentioned it...two fo the doctors I was seeing consistently didn't seem that worried...so each time I let it go.
But now she is six months old and the arm still does that...as well as the fact that now it seems to have a delay compared to the other arm. She grabs things and holds things just fine but her reach seems a little struggled, weaker and slower than the other arm.
Today we saw doctor Wood...who is the only doctor in that entire group who caught her heart murmur; so I asked him about it since its still a concern of mine. I picked Bailey up and put her up on my shoudler and showed him what I was talking about...he agreed with me that there is some reason to be concerned there.
He said he has a suspicion that she has a condition called a brachial plexus injury which is also called BPP (Brachial Plexus Palsy). It is nerve damage suffered during delivery from being pulled out of the birth canal that starts at the spinal cord and goes down the arm into the hand/fingers.
According to the mayo clinic who has a whole ward dedicated to this type of injury/problem says that:
"The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that comes from the spinal cord and controls muscle movements and sensation in the shoulder, arm and hand. Traumatic injuries to this network — most commonly caused by accidents or by childbirth (Erb's palsy or obstetrical brachial plexus) — can leave the arm useless.
Erb's palsy refers to the most well-known form of brachial plexus injury in infants, caused in most cases by trauma during birth. Erb's palsy affects shoulder motion and elbow flexion. A more serious form can affect the entire arm.
Brachial plexus injuries occur in approximately 1 in 2,000 births, but only about 10 percent of these babies need treatment; most heal on their own. Early evaluation (within the first one to two months of life) is important to determine whether therapy or surgery is required."So he is referring us to a pediatric neurologist because she seems to fall into the category called upper plexus palsy (C5-C7) kids with this keep the arm adducted and internally rotated with the elbow extended, forearm pronated, wrist flexed, and the hand in a fist.
This should have been caught in the nursery after her birth but the pedatricians there missed it and my doctors up until I saw Dr. Wood ignored it. So this could have been diagnosed and fixed before now had the right people been paying attention and had someone actually listened to the parents!!! But doctors seem to have a god-complex (Surprise there) and just don't think us parents know anything about our own children!!! We're all stupid paranoid wack jobs I guess!!!
I am waiting for a call back from DuPont Children's Hospital in Delaware. Their neurologist come highly recommended and Chop wouldn't see her til December so I just hung up on them and called DuPont. Once hearing her age and what my pediatrician suspects they wanted to see her right away even though they originally told me they weren't taking new patients. So that gave me a little bit of alarm but also at the same time made me feel good knowing that they're making her a priority.
They are trying to get us an appointment in their newtown office for her evauluation so we aren't driving all the way to delaware for the consult. Should she need any testing, treatment, surgeries or anything of that nature she'll go down to DE at DuPont Children's Hospital. The first step is to get her seen so I am waiting for a call back from them to see how soon they can get us in at that closer location.
For now we just wait and take this one step at a time and PRAY that its nothing and maybe just weak muscle tone or something that will heal itself. She remains just perfect loving happy Bailey to us. She loves her tummy time on the floor with her brother....she jumps like a crazy person in her jumperoo laughing all the while and she is just a joy and a delight in our lives. Her and her brother are the world to us and that will never change!!! She is sitting unassisted more and more ever day, rolls around the floor and is ready to take off on the crawling. She scoots and rocks herself all over the floor!!!
I'll keep everyone updated as more information becomes available and as we see the doctors and learn more!!!
INFO LINKS BELOW ON THIS BPP
http://www.mayoclinic.org/brachial-plexus/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/brachial-plexus/erbs-palsy.html
http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic215.htm
Comments
All my Love
Lori