by Sarah | Oct 12, 2007 | Uncategorized
I’ve learned over the past ten years that a great pediatrician makes ALL the difference. A poor one, one you don’t trust, and a down-right indifferent one…well, it makes all of life miserable.
When my son was born I found a GREAT one…in Virginia. Six months later we moved. Found a ‘good-slightly indifferent’ one in Maryland, that was actually a GP. Then we found a great group of peds…but ended up moving a few months later again. Came here, found a LOUSY group of peds…then what I thought was a great ped, that became indifferent over the course of four years until I actually stopped trusting him.
Now we have a GREAT pediatrician. We, quite literally, found her by accident. We’d planned on going with a highly reccommended ped…that wasn’t affiliated with our local hospital. He reccommended a local ped for when K was born, and we’d transfer to him. Then, hubby’s work changed insurance, and we learned that the ped we wanted wasn’t in network, and didn’t take medicaid. So, when K was born, I asked for the ped I thought he’d reccommended, and got the wrong one. We were discharged, but K was still pretty jaundiced. When she didn’t clear up right away we called the ped we’d seen in the hospital, but it was her day off…so we went with her partner, just to get in.
Turns out her partner is the perfect pediatrician 😀 She took our insurance (the one we saw in the hospital didn’t), and medicaid…and was just the nicest person ever.
Since then she’s been incredible. She’s spotted the issues we sometimes haven’t wanted to see…she’s pushed when we needed pushed, and stepped back when we wanted to wait. She does things TODAY, not next week. When we call and say “The PT wants a referral to an ortho”, she calls me same day to find out details…and then calls the PT same day to get more details.
Having the pediatrician that we have now has meant finding the diagnoses for our kids that we wouldn’t have had this soon otherwise. For all that I complain about “hurry up and wait”…our ped is never the cause if she can help it! She’ll see me anytime I have questions…and has even called “just to check in” on the girls and see how they’re doing!!!!
by Sarah | Oct 11, 2007 | Uncategorized
It’s my fault. I admit it. But, I haven’t had a bloody nose for quite some time (I think I was maybe 10 the last time I had one). Tonight I got a mom version of a bloody nose.
Molly and I were rough-housing…just goofing off on the couch. It’s her newest thing, she likes to hit me…and so to keep her from getting smacking me in the face (NO is very ineffective), she gets tackled to the couch and tickled. It keeps her from jumping on me, and we both get a good giggle out of it…and it has the wonderful effect of tiring her out.
Well, in the course of playing I learned a valuable lesson…
Molly’s fingers are the perfect size to go right up my nose.
Yup…it hurt, and scratched/damaged the inside. It was bleeding pretty good, and I was in pain for about 30 minutes…I’m still rather uncomfortable about 90 minutes later.
Needless to say, I’ll be much more careful next time we’re roughhousing.
by Sarah | Oct 11, 2007 | Hypotonia
We’ve been asked to get a referral for yet another specialist for K. This time for an orthopaedist.
Today we had PT for K. During the session, I don’t know why I thought of it, but I grabbed my cell phone. I showed her a video I’d taken about two weeks ago of my girls. In it, you see many of K’s issues presented rather boldly. She places her left foot poorly and falls to the ground. She struggles to get up because her left leg is in the air and she doesn’t have the strength to get the leverage. When she does get up she walks to the camera, and then away…and you see her ‘drunken sailor’ gait and how she doesn’t walk in a straight line. At the very end, you see her chase M right up until she stops short before walking on a blanket (an uneven surface).
I found out how good I’ve become at detecting her issues because without a word from me, the PT commented on everything I saw in the video. She became really concerned. We started talking about the issues that she wasn’t resolving, and how she’s smart enough to learn what hurts/makes her work enough to refuse to do it when she sees the toy again…but she can’t seem to pick up on things like proper distance to an edge of a step, or stepping down without turning her foot in, or judging proper step distance.
She has reccommended a vision check. We don’t think there are any issues there, but we want to rule out poor depth perception as a cause for a few of her issues.
Then she reccommended the orthopaedist. She said that he “may” say that it’s solely a strength issue and tell us to continue with the strengthening exercises. BUT, that he may reccommend braces. We’ve expected, and feared, this. All we can do now is make the appointment and hope for the best…but I can’t tell you how I’ve worried about having to make this call. More so than I was concerned about the neurologist.
by Sarah | Oct 11, 2007 | CF
And honestly…this is the first illness in the house, beyond allergies, since K’s diagnosis. As the first official illness…and one that could translate into lung issues…I am admittedly a bit freaked out. Eventually it will become old hat…but I’m avoiding my own daughter in concern for her developing a cough. Every time I go near her, I use the hand sanitizer first…but I can’t use that on my face. I’m one step away from getting a mask from the garage so I don’t spread it when I pick her up…she’s such a snuggly, kissy thing…
So today I do battle with my own fears on top of the cold. I don’t want her sick…but I know it’s unavoidable in most cases. I’ll take my precautions and hope that it’s enough.
I’m thinking of getting hand sanitizer to place all over the house…getting us in the habit of using it all the time…but then I worry aobut using it ‘too much’. Catch-22’s here we come.
by Sarah | Oct 8, 2007 | Autism
One of the hardest adjustments I’ve had to make is the preparation for change. Being that M is only two and a half, explaining to her upcoming changes isn’t so easy. And they are sometimes unexpected. So, instead of preparing her right now, I have to prepare myself.
This weekend we got ‘new’ furniture. From my parents we got a three-piece entertainment center. It’s not a huge change, we had an entertainment center…so we just swapped out the middle piece…but then the two side pieces were put into the room as well. One of them replaced a toy chest/diaper cabinet of hers.
Yesterday in reaction, M had a bad day. Slept a lot, when she woke up was crabby for some time. She came out of it alright in the end…but I was ill-prepared for the adjustment. Wasn’t even thinking about it, really, until it happened.
Note to self…from now on, prepare for change. And as soon as M is old enough…prepare HER for change!
