Avery's First HGH Shot

It's been a lazy, rainy day at the Bell house. Avery spent the day playing around the house in her adorable rain boots! She's become quite fond of them as well as her pink glitter mary jane squeaky shoes! One of her new favorite places is the kitchen window sill. She sits there and talks to herself or passers-by all the time- little cutie-pie. Late this afternoon, the Phizer nurse from Memphis, Nurse Watson, showed up to lead us through giving Avery her first shot of Genotropil. I had it in my head beforehand, that Jake would be giving the first shot, but I ended up doing it myself. Avery, of course, cried as soon as she saw Nurse Watson who was wearing bright orange scrubs! She was very sweet, and Avery stopped the crying and went back to watching The Fresh Beats in no time. After the demonstration, Avery knew something was up when we all began walking towards her, lol! Daddy held her, and I quickly injected the medication. She cried briefly, mostly like her feelings were hurt, but was much better after getting her Dora bandaid and bottle sucker. Yes, I gave her one of those nasty bottle shaped suckers with the powder candy inside! She can't get to the powder stuff, and the girl loves a bottle, so I figured it was the least I could do after sticking her! She seemed to like putting her monkey sticker on the little chart I made, and since it was her first time, we gave her a little happy- an etch-a-sketch- to play with.Being the polite little Southern Belle that she is, Avery told Nurse Watson "bye bye" and blew her kisses. She did it so much in fact, that Nurse Watson knew her time was up and headed out the door, lol. I can see now how this will become routine, and feel much better about doing this daily. I'm sure some days will be easier than others, but it's the same with anything, right? We will give her injections 6 days a week, and have decided to do so before her bath each evening. So shot 1 at age 2 is over, now we'll go on until the approximate age of 16! I'm so proud of my little munchkin- she's so tough! I'm even a little proud of myself! I've always turned away when giving blood or getting shots, so to actually give one to my own child, that is something! While Avery may not understand right now, I think she will be thankful she was able to get these injections to reach a more average height. She gave me sugar afterwards and then a high five, so my fear of her being upset with me is gone! Thanks for all of the prayers as always! ♥

About the GH...

We begin Avery's Genotropil on July 23rd. Phizer (through their PhizerBridge program) is sending a nurse to get us started. I actually feel a little sorry for her, because she is driving from Memphis! We received the medication via FedEx this week, and have all the needed supplies, so I guess we're ready! Avery is expected (according to a TS growth chart) to reach 5'2" with the daily hormone injections. The needle is very tiny, and hopefully the side effects will be light. Everyone I've spoken with tells me that it becomes routine- no big deal. I'm expecting that to be the case, however, I think it will take mommy a bit longer than Avery to get used to it, lol! I made her a sticker chart (Thanks to Casey Gordon), so we can praise her and let her put stickers on it after each shot. I've also decided to get her little prizes for the first week or two, so she can go in her prize box afterwards (Thanks to Christine Joyce!). We will go in for a check-up with Endocrinology in a few months to monitor everything.

Avery's July Cardiology App.

We got up early this morning for Avery's cardiology appointment. My little girl has it all figured out, lol, she made a whimper when we hit Woodrow Wilson- she knew where we were going! Thankfully, she is doing much better with her appointments. She used to scream bloody murder upon entering the door of any office just to approach the desk. Now, she may whine a little, but really does well unless someone is touching her. She even walked up to the scale this morning and stood on it at first! One of the echo-techs, Joan, came in to blow bubbles and play music on her phone for Avery during her EKG, which was very sweet. Avery stopped screaming for a brief second, but she's not going to stop until it's done- hard-headed like her mommy! Thankfully, she tells everyone "bye-bye", waves and blows kisses, so they can't not love her, lol! We then went on the get her echo done, and ended up, as usual, holding her down. In the end, it's over a lot quicker that way. Dr. Ebeid is happy with the way everything looks which is a relief. Jake and I both had some anxiety going in to the appointment. Everything has been so normal for a good while now, sometimes, we tend to get nervous because things have gone so smoothly! Avery's pulmonary cadavor valve is still leaking (it actually has been since they did the surgery) which is fairly normal, and it is not significant enough to worry about right now. Like I've said before, we're hoping Avery weighs enough by the time she needs that valve replaced to have Dr. E and Dr. Salazar team up to replace it in the cath lab- no OPEN heart would be a beautiful thing! Her aortic valve which used to be her pulmonary valve, is still working perfectly- thank you Dr. Bacha!! Avery's coarctation that was repaired in her first surgery, and then ballooned later, is still ok, but will need to be ballooned again down the road. Basically, things haven't changed, and she is still on the right path- thank you Lord! Dr. E had previously mentioned taking her off of her meds, but isn't going to yet. That isn't really an issue for us, because Avery is so conditioned, it's not a problem. We scheduled a cardiac MR for December to get a more accurate view of things. The following is information from a UMMC article about the MR...

"Compared to echocardiograms, the imaging produced by a cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) exam provides excellent visualization of the entire heart and surrounding structures. It is an excellent exam to assess for suspected coronary artery anomalies in children. The University of Mississippi Medical Center is believed to be one of 31 places in the world that offers MR coronary artery angiograms."

As you can see, we are very lucky to have access to this machine! I think it will give us a better 'piece of mind' to see exactly what is going on with Avery's heart too. She will have general anesthesia for the MR, so we scheduled an anestesia appointment prior. She will then see Dr. Ebeid in January to discuss the MR and have her normal check-up. I'm so proud of my sweet little munchkin, and so very thankful for Batson's cardiology department!

Next up, Avery has her VCUG and kidney check-up with Dr. Harmon. We are still hoping and praying that her kidney reflux has cleared up, so there will be no procedure. We'd also like to get her off of her daily, prophylactic antibiotic she has taken since birth. Thankfully, Avery hasn't had any infections, and it had gotten better at our last appointment. Prayers that it has resolved itself by August!

Cousin Bonding

We went to Vicksburg to spend the night since Jener came in for a few weeks. It warmed my heart to see the kids playing, and hear all the madness they brought to GG and Papaw's house! Jener was so excited to be around Cooper and Avery, and kept them completely entertained! They adore him, and I think the feeling is mutual! The kids were absolutely wild by the end of the night. Avery and Cooper decided to invade the kitchen cabinets, Cooper got in a toybox that was too small for him and ended up in nothing but a diaper!! They are hysterical! We met Mitch, Becca, and Cooper for lunch at Billy's the next day- yummy! Jener pushed Avery's stroller continuously at the outlet mall so she wouldn't fuss to get out- I told him I needed him around more often!! I love that kid...he was just born with a sweet heart! I remember holding him as a newborn- mom would bring him to my room early in the morning when Jen would drop him off, and he'd go back to sleep with me. As a baby and young child, Jener always rubbed and scratched your back with affection, and gave the best hugs. He's still just as sweet, just a little more hyper, haha! I'm so glad all of GG's grands got to play this weekend- it was great!