Doctor Week

Poor L has endured several trips to the doctor over the past week for a variety of reasons:

**His first well-child visit, which we had been putting off as we were still triaging other areas, such as sinus issues and athlete's foot.  As those have mostly cleared up, we took the plunge into the vaccine-laden well-child, which pretty much sucked.  He received 6 shots and a blood draw (and flu mist up his nose), and screamed like nothing I've ever heard.  I cried, he screamed, it was messy.  And it's over.  He still needs boosters, but nothing like this first appointment.  Tylenol/Motrin staggering helped a lot, but he was running a low grade fever and was sore for a few days.

**Limb Deficiency Center:  We had a meeting at Seattle Children's with the limb deficiency team, consisting of the head of the department, a geneticist, and a dysplasia nurse. The end result--his limb deficiency is not genetic, was likely caused by a blood clot in utero, and will require zero treatment. In the future I may request an occupational therapy referral for things like buttoning shirts and opening Ziplocs, but for now we're just going to figure it out with him. We discussed a prosthetic in-depth, and there are two distinct, colliding schools of thought on this area of limb deficiencies. This particular doctor felt (strongly!) that prosthetics are necessary in certain cases (lower limb deficiencies, multiple limb deficiencies) but for L, it would do no good and would probably be quite frustrating. As he pointed out, hands are used for sensation as much as for grasping, which can be hindered with the no-sensation prosthetic.  L has tendons and nerves that run to the end of his arm, so if our decision changes in the future, he's a good candidate for one. Lots of people use prosthetics for specific activities at different times in their lives.  Again, two very divergent opinions about prosthetics exist, and I'm sure we will try one at some point. But not now.

**ENT: L came home with a sinus infection, which we treated with a kiddie Z-pac, which is pretty standard.  A few days after the antibiotics were finished, I found bloody pus leaking from his ear--yup, ear infection with a ruptured ear drum.  While he still had major antibiotics in his system.  Hmmm.  So, another round of antibiotics.  And this week, another ruptured ear drum (same ear), so yet a third round of antibiotics, and a referral to ENT.  He doesn't even let us know that there is an issue until it's ruptured, dang it.  Of course, we don't have any information on past medical issues, so who knows what's been going on?  So we will throw ourselves on the mercy of the ENT professionals, and hope we get things figured out  as soon as possible.

Other than this, things are going well in our little world.  I'm working 24 hours a week from home, and it's actually really hard, and at the same time I really can't complain as at least I'm at home at all.  I love my job, but working for a social services agency means that I would essentially be working to pay for childcare, so this solution is the only one at this point that makes any kind of sense.  And I'm grateful to have employers that get it and are willing to make it happen.

L continues to be a rambunctious little boy, who is social and funny and obstinate and very, very loud.  He loves all things construction, is very interested in fish and sealife  and seems to consider Maggie his bestest friend in the whole world.  We've done some mom-group activities and he generally does well with other kids, as much as any 3-year-old does, and enjoys having structured activities throughout the day.  And so, frankly, do I, so it works. 

Watching the garbage trucks, holding his garbage truck.  It was amazing, indeed. 
And garbage men are seriously awesome people--they never fail to acknowledge enamored little boys.

Fun at the Seattle Aquarium