Mark took Nicholas to the cardiologist last Friday. The pediatrician wanted us to go because his apnea monitor showed his heart rate dropped too low 125 times. They did an ultrasound to check his PDA and did an EKG. His heart is completely fine and the doctor thought it was the apnea monitor malfunctioning. We got a new apnea monitor and haven't had any alarms.
Our early interventionist and the speech therapy had a meeting with us today. They want to hold off on speech therapy until after we get the full hearing test done next week. Once he has hearing aids the therapist will be able to work with him. Our early interventionist is also recommending we ask his pediatrician about corrective helmet therapy. He has a flat spot on the right side of his head because he favors that side. We don't know if he can even use a helmet because of his shunt but we will ask.
Nicholas also had an eye doctor appointment today with the pediatric eye doctor. His eyes are ok for now and he is far sighted in the right and near sighted in the left. They said this is pretty common with preemies and is something they have to watch. He doesn't need glasses at the time but he might in the future. We go back in 6 months.
You can get a helmet with a shunt. They will carve out that area to fit the shunt. You want to act fast though. My son had multiple revisions until he was almost 10 months. He had to recover for 8 weeks because he had a craniotomy. Long story short, we missed the window to use the helmet. Peak time is 6-9 months.
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