Animal Checkout

Jamie had his annual checkup a couple weeks ago, and Clare had hers last week. So we’ve been reading our Winnie-the-Pooh story about when Pooh gets his “animal checkout” (Pooh’s term) to prepare for the upcoming visits.

Jamie was counting down the days to his doctor’s visit. We even drew a band-aid on the date on the calendar in his bedroom so he knew exactly when it was coming. I think someone has definitely had to sit through more than his share of doctor’s appointments that were not his. Now it was his turn, and he couldn’t have been happier – three shots and all! Jamie has never had a problem growing and is the picture of health! We were relieved to learn that many of our parenting challenges with our four-year old are normal and all about power. He knows we have it, and he wants some. (Don’t we all!) Clare was not feeling the greatest the day of Jamie’s appointment (more teeth coming through), so Shawn took Jamie alone. The report was that the patient did great. Healthy as a horse!

Clare’s appointment, of course, took much longer. We had a list of about twenty topics we wanted to discuss with the pediatrician. Number one was the GI issue. Clare’s weight was 19 lbs, 4 oz, which we were very happy about (a gain of 5 ounces in two weeks, which is good for Miss Clare). Hopefully the days of gaining only an ounce every 3-4 months are over. The pediatrician agreed that we should not tinker with her Prevacid dose at all since it is working. We went over the studies regarding Prevacid and calcium absorption with him, and he agreed that this was not an issue to worry about right now. He also agreed that Clare does not need a GI doctor at this time. Yea! Our pedi handles the medical issues all the time that the GI is supposedly handling in Clare’s case. Other than Clare’s heart and thyroid medications (which we obviously do need an endo and cardio involved with), our pedi regularly prescribes the other medications Clare is on and is the sole doctor of many children on these prescriptions and with these medical issues. So we are done with the GI (and I happily cancelled our follow-up GI appointment). Of course, this is with the understanding that if Clare does develop more serious GI issues, we start seeing the GI again. We readily agreed on the condition that we get a referral for a new GI. All parties were satisfied!

We had some other concerns regarding Clare, but nothing too major. Her pedi is interested in hearing the results of the orthopedic consult which is in a couple weeks down in Boston. Plus we are going to consult with Clare's cardio about possibily taking her off her blood thinner or switching to aspirin, now that Clare is two (she was originally supposed to be on her blood thinner for only three months or so - it's been 19 months now and counting). Shawn is allergic to aspirin, which is why Clare was put on a different medication. But our pedi feels that the age of two is a good time to test out the aspirin, if the cardio agrees. We also want to move forward with getting Clare's tongue released, so it does not inhibit any speech or feeding skills. Again, the cardiologist has to approve the procedure, but we're hoping our pedi can convince her. Since Clare is now two, it should be a fairly simple office procedure (okay, maybe not to Clare, but compared to other things she has been through!).

Other than that, Clare is doing great. She finally received her MMR vaccination (we had delayed until she was 2 because of the possible link between the vaccine and autism - no sense taking a chance with something she may be at a higher risk for). We were surprised to hear that her speech is almost right on target for a typical two-year old. The pedi looks for about 30 words at the age of 2, and Clare has around 20. She is not putting words together much yet, but we were pleased to hear she wasn't that far behind. Normally, Clare would not need to go back to the pediatrician until she is 3, but we are doing a 6-month in-between visit. Clare likes to keep us on our toes!

The photo has nothing to do with Jamie and Clare's doctors appointments, but we finally got this photo back from the photographer, and I just had to share my beautiful children with everyone!