A Day Filled With Doctor Appointments

Today was a day filled with Doc appointments for Timmy. I guess I shouldn't really complain. If we took away the wait time in between each appointment the total time it took to see 3 different doctors was only 2 hours. Not bad for a hospital clinic.

Timmy's 1st appointment was with GI. Timmy weighs 36lbs and is 38in tall. We went over the upper GI test results that were preformed in Mid December. Of course the test showed that the Nissen was fully in tact. Then why are we seeing some minor reflux, especially when Timmy is up and being active? Or when I give him his nightly snack via his G-tube at night? Or why is Timmy able to burp so frequently? The only explaination the Doc had was that maybe Timmy needed to be vented more. Geez, the child gets vented every 2 hours! So I don't think that this is the underlying issue.

Timmy is currently taking 15mg of Prevacid 2x a day. The Doc suggested that we cut the dose to only 1x a day to see what happens. He felt that maybe the double dose of Prevacid may be masking some underlying cuase. Kinda makes sense to us. We are willing to try anything if it leads us to the problem so that we can come up with a solution to the problem. We are to call if we notice more frequent burping, reflux that is more than just a small "burp up" of food or if Timmy seems to be uncomfortable without the 2nd dose of Prevacid. Otherwise our next appointment is in a year.

Timmy's 2nd appointment was with urology. After 3+ years, I'm not sure if it was fate or our persistance in finding a doctor who was willing to circumcise Timmy and possibly descend his testicles which finally lead us to Dr. Ross. But anyway she is great. She is concerned about Timmy's health despite all of Timmy's underlying complex medical issues. She has Timmy's best interest at heart. She has a very good bedside manner. And she is very compassionate.

We discussed in further detail about her circumcising Timmy and during the same surgery descending his testicles. She feels that even though Timmy will not benefit from the fertiltiy benefit of having his testicles descended, (who knows what 15+ years into the future holds for Timmy) he will most definately benefit as far as a slighter chance of him developing testicular cancer, caompared to the higher risk of the cancer if his testicles weren't to be descended.

So as of now, Timmy has a pre-op visit scheduled on April 13th at 2pm with surgery to follow on April 14th. She has requested that Timmy be placed as her 1st surgery patient of the day. And we are all keeping an open mind as to whether this surgery will be done on an outpatient basis. She says if there is even the slightest issue that arises she will admit Timmy to the hospital for observation overnight. Awww, how sweet! Now if all doctors could be that concerned and caring about their patients, what a wonderful world this would be.

Luckily we were able to get Timmy in to see his orbital plastic surgeon on a walk in basis. We felt that being we couldn't get Timmy's eye back in that possibly there could be some scar tissue that had formed in his eye socket. The surgeon looked and from what he could tell this isn't the case.

Dr. Richard tried, but was also unsuccessful to rreinsert the eye. So the plan is for on Wed. Feb. 10th Dr. Richard will take Timmy to the OR and reinsert the eye under anesthesia. He then will suture the eyelid. So hopefully this will help to keep the eye in. The sutures will remain in place for a month or so. At which time we will have them removed. Hopefully by that time Timmy's eye socket will have had time to adapt to the prosthetic eye and have had a chance to grow larger. Making replacement of the prosthetic easier for when we have to replace it. Of course we will definately get that most challenging opportunity again soon, I'm 100% sure.

After our visit to the surgeon, I'm now convinced that Timmy is playing the sympathy card on us to get us to STOP and LEAVE him alone when we are trying to reinsert his prosthetic eye. At home he SCREAMS and CRIES, as if someone is chopping off his head with out any anesthesia. But when Dr. Richard tried to replace the eye, Timmy DID NOT scream or cry. He did tense up a bit and he became more vocal. BUT no screaming or crying. Dr. Richard used the exact same procedures to try to reinsert the eye as we do at home. He used a few numbing drops in the eye socket. He added some antibotic ointment and he lubricated the eye. All the while Timmy is sitting in Merry's lap (Timmy's Home Health Nurse) and she was restraining his arms/hands. But NO screaming or crying. Go figure!

Ok I will admit I'm proud of Timmy for not screaming and crying. He just showd us just how much of a big boy he can be when he needs to be.

Looking on the bright side of this whole situation. Boy are we lucky that we get to have a chance to deal with just one eye at a time. At least this eay we have a chance to trouble shoot any problems and become a pro at replacing only 1 prosthetic eye beore we have to take on the challenge of dealing with both eyes.

The next while at home that we have the pleasure of trying to replace Timmy's prosthetic eye, I hope that he will find it in his heart to grant us the same pleasure that he did Dr. Richard. And let us keep your sanity, nerves and our eardrums!  We shall see. So check back for updates.