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Four Weeks Old

Well our little man is now four weeks old and getting closer to his due date! Almost time for the doctors to stop adjusting him to gestational age - now they will just adjust his age starting from his due date.

 But we don't care about that! Lucas is 4 weeks old to us!!!

 The last week Lucas has been going through a growth spurt which has made things a little interesting on the PKU front as it has caused big changes in his Phe levels. When he goes through a growth spurt or when he gets sick he will need higher levels of protein to keep up. This meant we increased his breast milk intake by quite a bit which hopefully will help him put some more weight on. He weighed in at 5lbs 12oz on December 4th and we will have an updated weight on Thursday this week.

 As people can guess we have decided to bottle feed Lucas due to needing to closely monitor exactly how much breast milk he is getting vs how much formula he needs. He still gets my breast milk, but this just means I pump and bottle it for him. Means Mommy can leave Lucas with Daddy or Grandparents and sneak away if she so desires!

 So now let me talk about this medical formula for a moment. From what Jeff has found, this formula runs around $100 a can - which Lucas has gone through two and a half cans in the 3 weeks he has been on it. Today I received our next shipment of formula which contained 8 cans. Meaning at the moment we have approximately $1,200 in medical formula sitting on our shelf. Now this is where I am going to sing praises to our health care system.

 Yes, Alberta Health Care has some flaws and problems (but I am not here to go into those) but let me take a second and point out what Jeff and I have NOT had to pay for:

  • I was on medical bed rest at home for 3 weeks with a home health care nurse visiting me daily to monitor me & baby
  • When it became necessary I was admitted to the hospital for 12 days on bed rest where I was given 3 meals a day
  • 3 times baby showed signs of distress and I was given an emergency ultrasound - the last one was the one that discovered that baby was indeed in distress
  • I was induced and then taken in for emergency cesarean section
  • Lucas was hospitalized for 10 days in the NICU where he was given the heel poke test (as all newborn babies are) which is how his PKU was discovered
  • Lucas received referrals to his medical team and dietitian AND was started on the PKU medical formula
The formula Lucas will be on now, and most of the non-perishable medical foods he will need to eat for the rest of his life, will be paid for by the health care system. They pay for it because it is life threatening to babies, children, teens, and adults if they do no have access to this medical form of protein.

I am very grateful for the province we live in, I know there are many many who are not provided for in this way.

Approx. $1,200 in medical formula for Lucas

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Comments

  1. Anonymous10 December 2014 at 14:11

    Our system has its flaws but its because of our system that Lucas will grow big and strong! <3

    ReplyDelete

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