Pediatricians make the world go 'round

Last week I had a lot of appointments scheduled. I wanted to get ALL the kids caught up on their shots, and get everything ready for Kindergarten round up for Joe.

The fallen behind dr. appointments have been hanging over my head but this was literally the first chance we were able to get in.

Sam, Molly and Lucy had their appointments on Thursday and Joe's appointment was on Friday.

Sam: 3'10", 47lbs 40th percentile.
Molly: 3'.75", 32lbs 25th percentile
Lucy : 2'8", 23lbs 25th percentile

They all had clean bills of health. Sam's vision was 20/20 and oddly he failed his hearing test. Our pediatrician asked if he's ever had one before and as a matter of fact, yes he has one about every 6 months. He's never failed one before and they checked his ears - clean. So they think maybe he just didn't understand the instructions.

The nurse told him to raise his hand when he heard the beep but he says, "No, I'll open my fist when I hear it." and so that's what he did. Apparently that's what he's always done before. He's a rule follower kind of guy.

When the pediatrician came in she asked all sorts of questions, most of them to him. I think this is a first time and let me just tell you how embaressed I was!

Dr.: "Do you brush your teeth twice a day?"
Sam: "Nope, I only brush them on the weekends. I am WAY too busy going to school."
Mom: *face palm* "but.. umm... but... no, we..." *double face palm*

Dr.: "Do you always wear your helmet when you ride your scooter?"
Sam: "No, usually I just go out a ride..."
Mom: "Well you're supposed to.... hee hee." *face palm*

Dr.: 'What kind of food do you eat?"
Sam: "Ohhh, just... chocolate miiiiilk and sometimes ice cream and hot chocolate at my Papa's house..."
Mom: "Well actually we eat a lot of rice, and lots of vegetables and a lot of..."
Molly: "A lot of nooodles!"

Molly did great, she got three shots and Lucy got 5. Both of them did great at home, their legs were sore and they had mild fevers, nothing too horrible. We've had horrible reactions before so I was incredibly happy about this.

Lucy of course has eczema and Dr. J was able to give us some tips on how to handle it better and handle her diaper rash better. The other day for no reason she had a huge diaper rash... bleeding, welts and blisters. It came on in a matter of hours, she went to bed, pooped in her sleep and as soon as she woke up she had a horrible rash that lasted for about 3 days of screaming, writhing pain then finally started going down. We've switched shampoo and soap, which is unfortunate because the stuff she wants me to use makes her hair really grease. Oh well. Better than scales!

Joe's appointment on Friday was with a different pediatrician, the husband actually of the woman we saw the day before. Joe did a pretty good job on his eye chart but they weren't able to say what exactly his vision was because he didn't answer all the questions. He had no idea what one of the pictures was and frankly, neither did I.  He kept calling the "cross" (as the nurse called it) the "DS up and down" and she kept saying that was incorrect. lol.

He failed his hearing test too but that's because he had no idea what she wanted him to do. Our nurses' name is Stephanie. She was really nice and thought all the kids were super cute. She laughed most of the weird things they did off. Kids will be kids.

Joe's stats: 3'5", 30lbs 10th Percentile

He didn't have to get shots, but he did have to get blood drawn. They wanted to run a sed rate, crp, cbc, complete metabolic panel, TSH and a total CK. Two years ago I turned down the glucose test because he failed the one hour they wanted to do a 5 hour one. 5 hours of getting your blood drawn seems to me to be horrible punishment and even worse for a 2 year old. That was already a hard year for him medically and I just didn't have the heart to scar him any further. We chose instead to follow a strict diet for him knowing what kinds of things made him feel good and what made him feel bad. For the most part we still follow that.

The CK test measures the levels of his CK (Creatine Kinase) and to see if there is any damage to his muscles... I'm not into the lingo and can't explain it but I did understand most of it. The test was very painful for poor Joe and we both cried, but he did a freaking amazing job and didn't move ONE INCH while they jabbed the needle in his arm. He kept crying out, 'stop! Stop! That hurts me!" My heart was broken. It was so sad. But he was a trooper. The pediatrician explained it in preschool laymen terms so I could understand; If his muscles have atrophy then that would explain his muscle pain, fatigue/weakness and lack of strength. We waited awhile to get this stuff tested because we wondered if he was just a little bit lazy when he wanted to be. Gradually we've come to the realization that maybe something is actually wrong. Dr. J told me he didn't really want to go into the side effects or what the atrophy could be from until they got back some tests. He said, "I just don't want you to get worried." but really, how many 4 year olds get their muscles tested? How many 4 years olds lay down in the grocery store isle? How many 4 year olds stand up like little old men and complain of muscle pain? Not any I know of. He did mention that if it was what he thinks it may be (he was able to rule out two muscle diseases right away because they both present with rashes) then the muscle does not regenerate or heal itself, that the muscle just slowly goes down hill from here. We received a referral for the children's hospital and as soon as we get the referral in the mail (grr stupid group health) then we'll schedule an appointment with a neurologist. Hopefully we'll hear back from the blood work this week.

We also have a referal for Sam to see a child psychologist so we can have his diagnoses of "PDDNOS" changed to Asperger's Syndrome. We've been waiting/putting it off for awhile for this one, but I was really suprised and not prepared for Dr. J (the woman) to bring it up, I didn't even mention it. Jerry and I are both pretty touchy about this subject. Yes, Sam is totally different than other kids. He's incredibly intelligent and the way his mind works baffles us. We're both constantly impressed by him. We wonder though sometimes if he's just an overly intelligent kid and then sometimes, when he's having a hard day, when something happens that he doesn't like, when one of our schedules is mixed up and when something is out of his control we can see that he just has a harder time coping and a very hard time calming himself down. While we were at the doctor's office he decided he was hungry and with in minutes he was almost hyperventilating.

I was annoyed (like a lot a lot) that the woman in the pharmacy filling the kids' floride tablets asked if Sam had any allergies relating to his "chronic disease". You work at a freaking doctor's office, you don't know what Autism is? No.. there's no allergies associated with his "disease".

After Joe's appointment we opted to skip round-up. It's not necessary to enroll in Kindergarten and he just didn't feel up to it. Instead we went to toys r us and let him pick out a little lego man (side note - when Joe was getting ready for the lab he was super nervous and I told him Dad would let him pick out a new toy when he was done (not like bribery, but like reward. lol) and Joe tells me through tears that he wants the Lego City Fire station. What do I say? "Oh course my darling... Daddy will buy it for you... or not. I wasn't up to spending $84.99. Instead he picked out a little person and was completely content. Thank goodness!)

All the kids have recovered from the trauma (lol. So have I) and I am stoked to be able to be done with this routine/stress for awhile... or well, until Iris is born and then it's back to square one. But Sam and Joe don't need any shots until they're 8, Molly will get her next round (and last until she's 8 ) in January. Lucy still has a few more rounds but they're only the once a year ones. She goes back in October.

Anyway that's about all. I keep adding on to this for the last couple of days so sorry it's so danged long.

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