Doctors, Doctors

Michael had his 5 year well visit last Tuesday. It was a bit crazy as I had 3 kids there and Katie was also being seen for a sick visit.

The visit started off good. The nurse took Michael's height and weight. He is now 43 inches tall (50%) and weighs 39 lbs (30%). Then she took him in for a hearing screen, which was fine. Michael also had to pee in a cup, which he thought was fun. Everything was OK until it was time for the finger prick. This is when he started freaking out. I can't say that I blame him. He didn't want to stay still and was hiding from me. I finally got him and the nurse did it as quickly as possible. Michael screamed and let me know that he was not happy with me!

We finally got in to the exam room and waited for the doctor. When he came in, he joked that he was scared to come in the room due to all of the screaming. He examined Michael and discovered that he has a hernia. Michael will need to have surgery to have this fixed. We will be referred to a surgeon and I have also contacted Johns Hopkins to get their opinion on the surgery since Michael has Marfan syndrome. Other than that, the rest of the appointment went OK, until the shot at the end. We had a better plan for that and it was over before he knew it.

Wednesday was Michael's annual orthopedic appointment. They took x-rays of his spine, hips and feet/ankles. The doctor said that Michael is showing no scoliosis at this time. He also doesn't have flat feet. The final thing that they checked for was his hips and they were showing no signs of displacement. It was a great checkup.

We also talked with the doctor about casting for Michael's ankles to help strengthen them. His physical therapist had recommended that we look into that as our next step as the therapy is only helping so much. The cast will be for a week and then they will remove them and re-evaluate. After he gets them removed, we should know if it helped or not almost immediately.

Now we just have to wait for the next step on the casting, as well as the hernia surgery.