Today was another busy day for the Bun. In between the madness, she had some time playing with Grandma.

In the afternoon, we went to the Children’s Hospital and tried out the Special Care Clinic for Ella’s primary care. The new facility is amazing.

The doctor ordered labs which required drawing blood. That is never Ella’s favorite thing to do but she did need to have it done. Here, they finger prick to get the blood. We had never tried this before. Since it is hard to locate a vein on her, I was hopeful that it might be a better experience….wrong!

I was asked to hold a warmer on her hand to help bring blood to the area. When they pricked her finger, the fighting and crying from Ella started. The nurse continued to hold pressure on her finger and have the drops of blood go into two vials. I’m sure it was not a long process, but it felt like an eternity to me, so it had to feel that way for Ella too. That was one of my least favorite parts: the process took too long.

I was trying to hold Ella down and her finger was bleeding profusely. The gauze got soaked, so the nurse asked me to hold it in place while she got more gauze. Then, my fingers became bloody and I was trying to console and hold down Ella with a dirty hand. The nurse mentioned to not use the warmer next time, as Ella doesn’t need help to bleed. By the time it was finished, I even had blood on my clothing. Needless to say, I was not impressed by the experience.

While we were there, the doctor ordered for a nutritionist to visit Ella too. She looked at her overall nutrition and caloric intake and recommended that we change the formula to add more calories. We mix Alimentum to 24 calories. The nutritionist suggested mixing it to 26 calories.

In the end, we did not decide to go with the Special Care Clinic. Instead, we met a private doctor yesterday, Dr. Steve Perry. My mom and I were clearly impressed with him, but wanted to meet and greet with all 3 of the doctors before making a decision.

Unfortunately, the PT had to cancel for today’s session. We hope to reschedule for a new date very soon.

I’d love to write more, but I will have to save it for another post. I’m drifting off to sleep as I write this entry…