Doctors Doctors Doctors

So yesterday was doctor day.

Christian had his check up with the audiologist. She once again re-tubed his aids ( I hate those tubes! I think we've probably used more tubing already than most people ver do!). Took a new impression for a new mold on the right and set up for us to come back in 2 weeks for his before school audiogram and fitting for the new mold. Of course we are hoping for no progression in the hearing loss, so if you want to put that on your prayer list we'd appreciate it.

Shaylin checked out perfect. 50th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Which, if you know my kids that's really impressive! Doc said she's nowhere near puberty yet (didn't think she was) and her spine doesn't look to have progressed any so we'll just see what next year brings with her scoliosis. We are expecting to have to brace her as she hits puberty, the longer we can put all that off the better I say!

Nate. Nate, Nate, Nate. Well, he's still drinking enough to drown and we've been kind of playing a game of cat and mouse with the Peds Endocrinologist. The first appt we couldn't make and the second one this past friday he had an emergency and had to reschedule. Nate's Ped was actually surprised we were still dealing with this, she thought maybe it had resolved. No such luck.

A little update on all of that before I go further. As you know, a few months ago Nate started drinking excessive amounts of water and flooding his diapers. We had him tested for Diabetes, Diabetes Insipidus, and had an MRI done to look for a Pituitary tumor. All came back negative. The only thing they did conclude was that his urine concentrated very little overnight (12 hours NPO) Which his ped seemed to think was fairly insignificant due to the amounts of hydration he has during the day.

Shortly thereafter we had a full week where he drank and peed NORMALLY. We thought whatever it was had just resolved itself but then one day afternoon after drinking very little, the flood began shortly followed by cups and cups of water and juice going down the hatch.

I brought this up to her that it SEEMS that the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, at least in this case, had been answered. The urination seems to be the cause and the excessive thirst the effect.

She asked if he craves salt.... not really. He LIKES salt but he's not going crazy to get it. She asked if as a baby he had wet a lot. Possibly, but this was our first baby to wear cloth, so that makes it difficult to figure out if his #'s of wets a day were "normal". How often did he nurse as a baby. He nursed all the time actually. In fact, he refused to eat solids until he was a year old. Preferring to nurse instead. Maybe another clue.

So, she said she was going to take the step to consult the Pediatric kidney specialist and see if he thought there was anything to look for. We got a call today that Friday Nate will have a renal ultrasound (NPO of course, because I swear they want to kill me), a repeat blood pressure (unsure what that's about) and labs done.

We also talked about Nate's eye. I told her that although we do trust his Opthamologist, we were worried about his laisez-faire approach to Nate's eye. Nate's OP is of the opinion that his cataract is NOT causing his vision loss, but that both things are just the result of an eye that never formed properly at all. While he may well be correct in his opinion, we worry that someday someone's gonna say "well, if that cataract had been removed when he was 2, he'd be able to see out of that eye now".

She agreed that a second opinion was a good option. She referred us to one of the leading Pediatric Opthamologists in the country, who HAPPENS to practice at the U of M (yeeeeeeeeeks). Maybe this guy will agree with the other doc, maybe not. But at least we will feel better about the course of treatment with 2 doctors who agree on it. She also said that there's SOOO many differing opinions between OP's on treating eye disease that who knows, maybe this doc will have an entirely different take on what needs to be done.

At the very least we need to figure out what to do about Nate's glasses. He will NOT wear them. Ok, he will, for about 5 minutes at a time before ripping them off and breaking them. It's getting expensive and defeating the purpose. We need a plan B.

THEN. You thought I was done didn't ya? Yeah, no.

Then last night we get home at about 8pm and the kids have taken a new liking in climbing this huge pine tree in our front yard (mom was even up the thing the other night hehe). So they are climbing the tree and Jack comes in and says something is in his eye. Bark from the tree. Well, a tiny peice of tree bark, sure enough, is stuck on the inside of his upper eyelid. We flushed it and gave it some time, hoping it would work it's way out on it's own but after a couple hours it was apparent that wasn't going to happen as it was swelling, red, and bothering him quite a bit.

So, at 10:30 we arrive at the ER. Which was insanely busy. Great. So we wait 2 hours (I get it, it happens, boring but not bothered) doc comes in, flips his eyelid inside out, gets the tree bark out and checks his cornea for abrasions. Antibiotic in hand we are out the door and home at 1am.

Fun times y'all. Fun times.

So anyway, if you could send some thoughts our way that we get to the bottom of "mystery boy", as his ped calls him. They would be greatly appreciated.