August brought a new set of medical issues to Tate. On August 1st, I noticed Tate had blood in her stool. I took a picture with my cell phone and emailed it to my mom and Aunt Melissa. They both said I should call the doctor, which I was planning on doing anyway. Dr. Davis' nurse wasn't too alarmed, but said that if she had it again, that we should bring her in for Dr. Davis to check. Well, she did have more blood in her stool, and so off we went to the pediatrician's office. Little did we realize this was the beginning of a very close relationship with Dr. Davis, and that we would be at the doctor's office regularly for the next month and a half.
Dr. Davis explained that the blood could be caused by a few different reasons, one of which being a fissure on her bottom. When he checked her bottom, that is exactly what he found. He was happy with this finding, as he figured this was the answer to the blood and that it would heal nicely and all would be well in the world! :)
Well, things are not that easy with Tate! A few days later, Tate had more blood in her stool that looked red and jelly-like. We took to the Internet (worst thing you can do) and were freaked out about what might be wrong with Tate. We went back to the doctor's office and started talking about how it might be a milk protein allergy. Dr. Davis put me on an elemental diet (no dairy, nuts, shellfish....anything that could be a potential allergen) and he put Tate on a specialty formula. Tate refused the formula and so I put her on the elemental diet breast milk. Everything seemed really good for a few days, but then the blood came back. Dr. Davis had spoken to a pediatric gastroenterologist who suggested that Tate go on a highly specialized (and VERY expensive formula) and that I would be taken out of the equation. I was NOT happy about this, but I wanted to do what was best for Tate, and if she needed this special formula, then I was going to give her what she needed. Well, we changed formula cold turkey, and Tate would not take the new kind at all. We had even gotten our insurance company to cover it - but Tate would not drink it. We ended up going back to the Similac Sensitive - the only formula Tate really liked taking - for a while.
We were in and out of Dr. Davis' office all of August. Towards the end of the month, he referred us to an allergist who did blood work to check for a milk, soy, or shellfish allergy. The blood work all came back negative, so we felt good about that. In the meantime, Dr. Davis got us an appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist to see about the GI problem Tate was having.
We met with Dr. Carter-Kent, a pediatric gastroenterologist at MUSC, at the beginning of September. Her diagnosis was that Tate did have a milk protein allergy, and that blood work for allergies is not accurate in a baby under the age of one. She prescribed another highly specialized and even MORE expensive formula for Tate to take. When I called the prescription in to CVS they let me know that a month's worth supply would cost $1,000. WHAT!! I had to sit down and let this all sink in. I told them not to order it yet. We went through the hoops of seeing if we could get our insurance company to cover it. They initially said no, but we wrote a letter of appeal for the first specialized formula and they agreed, so we did the same again. We continued to stress that this formula is a medical necessity and that I wanted Tate on breast milk exclusively for six months, but obviously this was not happening. We are fairly certain that Tricare is going to cover it, but we haven't gotten it in writing yet.....hmmm
We weened Tate onto the new formula and she started taking it really well. We hope that her medical issues with her belly and bottom will clear up soon.
On a developmental note, Tate was doing really well. She was sleeping about 8-9 hours a night in a row. She was tracking with her eyes and smiling at us. Life is great....even with the medical issues!
Love to all!
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