Wednesday, April 2, 2014

601. . .And SB's Tests

I just opened Blogger, and it informed me that I have drafted 600 posts.  It's hard to believe I started blogging so many years ago.  Time really has been flying by since we started trying to have kids.

But that's not what I wanted to blog about.  I want to note the milestone, but I really came here to talk about potential neural tube defects.

When we went for SB's 2nd year checkup, I pointed out a few things that have been bothering her/me.  One is a bump on her upper back, just between her shoulders on her spine.  There is one vertebrae that sticks out more than the others.  It's always been this way, but it's become more noticeable lately.  Since she was born, the doctors have said it was normal.  But this time, the doctor referred us out for consultation.

The second thing was that she plays with her belly button a lot, and complains that it hurts.  It's a bit of an outie, and I was worried about a hernia.

T. took her to the referral appointment with a pediatric surgeon about two weeks ago, just before the plague struck us.  That doctor recommended that we do ultrasounds of her back and abdomen, to determine if there were a neural tube defect.  At which point, I nearly lost my shit.

I took my vitamins regularly.  We had level 4 zillion ultrasounds at a fancy private European hospital.  And a handful of doctors have seen her across two continents over the last two years, and assured us that everything looked normal.  So, neural tube defect?  Really?  Also, after the crazy shitstorm of the last six months, we really didn't need that.

It took us forever to get the tests scheduled.  They finally said they could do them, the day she was diagnosed with Coxsackie.  We instead scheduled them for yesterday, instead, figuring no one wanted a contagious kid in their space.   They booked them for 2:30 and 2:50pm, and instructed me to keep her from eating for 6 hours beforehand (great!).

We arrived promptly yesterday, only to discover that the hospital had moved our appointment back by an hour.  Let me tell you, that extra hour we spent waiting, with a hungry 2 year old, was something special that the entire waiting room enjoyed immensely.  But for the tests, she was a doll.  She let them put the ultrasound goo on her, and she played with it herself.  She even got so into it that she asked the doctor if she could use the ultrasound wand on herself.  He let her do it with him, and I think he was really tickled that she was so into it.  He kept telling me how nice she was, and told her that she was going to be a doctor when she grew up.  She fussed a bit here and there, but let him do everything he needed.

Anyway, the end result, after all of the drama, was that she is completely normal, and they didn't see anything wrong at all.  The back is just the way she's formed, and the stomach is normal.  Now I just have to keep her from playing with it and irritating it.

I am WIPED, physically from all of the night waking with two sick kids, and mentally from. . .well, everything.  Hopefully, the rotten stuff is behind us, and we can have a nice, long, happy, safe, positive stretch of living.

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