Friday
February 5th, 2010We finally made it to our new developmental pediatrician this morning with Warren after it was rescheduled for the fourth time. She’s right here in town at our local army hospital, so we were hoping that it would go well and we could drop one of our Duke docs that has not been impressive lately. Well, she is fantastic!! Her name is Dr. Cooper and before I go any further, as we left I said to Craig, “I feel like we did something right for our kid today.” What a nice feeling.
Anyway, questions that we have asked various doctors along the way were finally answered today. She is very thorough. One of the first things she said was how “amazing it is that Warren survived the AVM rupture… what a catastrophic thing to happen.” Our little miracle boy! Anyway, the short of it is this: she has put in an order for us to see a GI doctor at Chapel Hill, an orthopedist at Chapel Hill, a PT evaluation for aquatic therapy, a nutrition consultation, and we had 2 X-rays done today while we were there. Whew! We’ve wanted to see a GI for some time, and she didn’t hesitate… said it was “needed”. Same for the ortho. The concern with Warren and ortho is mainly in his hips. If you don’t bear weight on your legs, basically the ball and socket that is your hip can begin to slowly slip out. One of the first signs of this is when a child hunches to one side which Warren does. We cannot keep that child straight. I’m concerned about that but glad that we are taking the first steps in hopefully correcting it. If it gets completely out, it will require surgery to correct and a cast for 6 weeks. Please, oh please let us avoid that! That’s why we got the X-rays today for one. The second X-ray was of his spine, as there is a curve at the base of his spine. With his side sitting all the time and preference to keep his body facing one direction, this is to be expected but our awareness can hopefully lead to some correcting of the issue. A lot of that can be resolved with positioning. We are requesting doctors at Chapel Hill versus Duke for a simple reason: not having to fight our insurance. Since Chapel Hill is in the network, we should be able to get there a lot easier. As long as it doesn’t pertain to his brain, I’m fine to go there. It’s those brain docs that I want all in one place! Not sure how long it will take to get an appointment, but I feel so much better knowing that someone is helping us.
So, the little one did well. He pee’d everywhere during our appointment in Dr. Cooper’s office which is always entertaining. He refrained during the X-rays, as we had to kind of hold him down. He was a trooper! It’s an awful day here… cold and raining, but I managed to get him indoors, and he’s super sleepy now with a full belly. Time is ticking for his nap.
I’m not going to talk about me today because I simply don’t feel like it. We are forging ahead. Weekend seems nice… date night with my beloved tomorrow night and then of course… the Superbowl Sunday. Our MRI at Duke is next week, but I’m trying not to think about it. Sedation makes me nervous. I’ll update when we get through that. Thanks for checking in, as always.
Love,
Craig, Amy, and Warren
