The list of appointments this week was long, but they all ended with positive results. First we had a visit with Sherry’s OB. All is going great with the pregnancy. Even though this pregnancy is going great, they still want a fetal echo cardiogram. The first reason for offering this was to ease our minds about the status of this baby’s heart. I guess the normal human response is to fear for a repeat of past pregnancies where heart defects were found. Since we showed no signs of concern, they said there would be no reason for a fetal echo. Now they have changed their minds. Now the reason is most likely stemming from what Sherry and I like to call lawyer medicine. It’s okay, we are not fighting them. We agreed to the echo.
Our next stop this week was with Caden’s peds cardiology appointment. The first surprise there was to find that Caden topped the scales at over 30 pounds. Keep in mind that this child will be only 2 1/2 years old this week. It took Riley until he was 3 years old to pass the 30 pound mark. The visit went forward without a hitch. Caden’s heart is doing great. He did get an echo cardiogram done so they could see how past repairs are holding up and see how Caden’s aortic valve is functioning. The repairs are holding up great. The valve is not causing any alarms and the want to continue a six month visit routine to watch the valve. The pacemaker has become pretty much a non issue. The only motivation to take it out right now would be to get an MRI on Caden’s spine. The MRI results would be helpful but not critical since the diagnosis of scoliosis did not show any life threatening or physical restrictions for Caden. The result of the pacemaker decision is that we plan to leave it in. There is no danger of leaving it in place. It can always be removed if/when an aortic valve replacement is needed. The cardiologist believe that a valve replacement is inevitable.
Caden has been cleared by cardiology to receive a Z-plasty. This is a procedure to aid Caden in his ability to speak. The primary symptom of the diagnosis of a sub mucus cleft palette prevents Caden from clearly speaking. We were cautiously optimistic about whether cardiology would sign off for Caden to get any other procedures requiring anesthesia without having the pacemaker repaired. Thank God they have move past the desire to repair the pacemaker. They now agree that it just needs to be removed.
The last big appointment of the week was for Caden to see an allergist. The results were mixed and we need some blood work to confirm some suspicions. The doctor believes that Caden may be reacting to environmental conditions caused by dust mites and mole spores. This might explain what Caden seems to get sick after an hour or more in the car seat. We will keep you posted on this one. In the meantime, Caden is on Zytec and Singular. I know what Zytec is all about since everyone else int he house takes it. The Singular is on my list of things to learn more about. I just know it is suppose to help with secretions.
Sherry and I did get a big gold star from Caden’s pediatrician this week. Caden was prescribed a refill for an antibiotic. This is not unusual for Caden since he seems to take a little longer than average to get over a sinus infection. Since this was a refill, it was suppose to be the same stuff and it was. The problem we saw was that the prescription called for 3 teaspoonfuls instead of the 3/4 teaspoon that we had been giving for the past ten days. We figured that just maybe the concentration was weaker so I checked that. Nope. it was 250mg/5ml just like the previous bottle. I proceeded to call the pharmacist. They said that the prescription was filled the way it was called in. They suggested we call the doctor before giving the higher dose of the medicine. It was after business hours so we just went ahead with the 3/4 teaspoon. Everything else on the label was the same. It was just a bottle about four times the size of the last one. The next day Sherry called the pediatrician before leaving to go to the cardiology appointment at MUSC. It was on about an hour later that we received a voice mail on every phone associated with our records at the pediatrician’s office. It seems a new nurse actually called the prescription in an made the mistake. They were very thankful that we were meticulous enough to question the dose of Caden’s medicine. The amount of medicine four times the normal dose could have been very harmful to him. I did not ask how harmful, and it really does not matter to me. Thank God this did not happen to a family that takes all medical advise and instructions as gospel.
The picture above is a teaser. There are more pictures coming from our latest GFI alumni event as well as from our excursion to the Boone Hall strawberry patch. Our family along with my sister and two other families from our current Growing Kid’s God’s Way (GKGW) class went out and pick strawberries together.