Ideal Weight

Well it appears we have hit the ideal weight for Maggie-- 25 lbs. 7 oz. I got a call today saying that they are decreasing the amount of TPN that Maggie is on because they don't want her necessarily gaining anymore weight, and they would like her to begin eating a bit more on her own.

While Maggie has been allowed to eat while on TPN, her appetite has decreased quite a bit. Before TPN, Maggie ate constantly because she wasn't absorbing anything. As she has continued TPN, I have noticed her gradual shift to eating much less. While I definitely don't know what "normal" is due to our always having eating issues (whether she didn't eat at all during the heavy treatment to eating constantly while having profuse diarrhea), I am guessing that she might be not taking enough in now. Who knows though.

The other issue with her nutrition is that her pre-albumin (measures her nutritional state) is still pretty low. It fluctuates from week to week, but the last count was below normal. Dr. Mezoff believes that Maggie's protein in her body was so depleted that she has little reserve, therefore she must build it all back up, which I guess will take some time. For this, they have also changed the amount of protein that is in her TPN by increasing it.

We will see how it all goes, but we continue to be encouraged by Maggie's disposition and weight gain. The TPN is our miracle drug right now to getting her back on track. Hopefully soon enough her diarrhea will be completely gone and her nutrition will be at a perfect state.