Looking for support

By now, I'm sure that most of you have heard the GREAT news . . . Alli is continuing to gain weight!!!! At her appointment with her GI doc last week, she weighed in at 19 lbs 8.6 oz. So all of you mathematicians out there now realize that Alli gained 2 lbs in 3 weeks ~ Woo Hoo! We are so thrilled, now if only we could get her to eat a bit healthier of a variety of foods, oh well, that's tomorrow's battle. For now, we are just so happy that she seems to be improving. Now, to be fair, she still is not a great eater, very picky and eats small amounts, but she's a small gal so we're not expecting her to eat a ton yet. We are a little nervous for when we have to take her off of the stimulant (6 weeks on, 2 weeks off). She has to go off of it so her body doesn't build up a tolerance to it. Although we have been warned that it could be stressful, we are trying to remain positive and hoping that she will at least not lose weight even if she doesn't gain.


We had a very touching experience at Children's Hospital at her last visit that I wanted to share. We were down at the lab because Alli needed to have her bloodwork re-checked. While we were waiting, Alli saw a little infant with her Mommy and was very intrigued. The other Mommy thought Alli was very cute and we began chatting while the little girls were watching each other very intently. Turns out the little one was 7 months old and had just received a heart transplant. You could just see the love and joy pouring out of her Mommy. We were absolutely amazed by this and were reminded once again how fortunate we are to have Alli in our lives. As we were leaving Children's that day, we saw a sign for a 7 mile walk to benefit the Hospital and we decided to sign up.

As you know, Alli has had difficulty gaining weight because of her aversion to food. We begged Alli's former pediatrician to help but were told that it was no big deal and she would grow out of it. Alli went from a healthy little gal who was in the 15th percentile to completely off the charts. Thankfully, in January, her new pediatrician (who we absolutely love!) referred us to Dr. Duro, a GI doc at Children's. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Children's, Alli is now eating and gaining again ~ even back on the growth chart at 6%. It's never fun to be poked and prodded but the everyone who works at Children's has been so great and made all of us feel like there is hope. We are working as a team.

Although we have nothing to compare it to, we think that Children's Hospital in Boston is a wonderful place, a truly unique hospital—one of the best pediatric institutions in the world, giving hope to so many kids and their families, constantly finding new ways to treat or cure an amazing variety of diseases. The doctors and nurses here never say "never" and they treat kids from all over the world. We're fortunate that we have insurance but some of the kids have families who can't afford to pay for their care and Children's takes care of them all! If you are interested in supporting Alli in her walk for Children's, please visit her Walk page.

Thank you! Your donation will make a difference in kids' lives, including Alli's :)