Tuesday morning I packed up Luna and took her out for her very first visit to the pediatrician. It was my first time with this practice-who specialize in chronic illness (though I loathe that expression so I'll just refer to their clientele as 'special').
The doctor-who for now I'll call Dr. Goodnews-arrived in the examining room suited-up in a Hazmat outfit and bifocals that made his eyeballs appear the size of baseballs. OK, so I exaggerate on the Hazmat outfit, but he was wearing a sizable mask and gloves and those crazy coke bottle glasses. At least I know these docs are taking our 'special' kids seriously.
Dr. Goodnews had me undress Luna to her diaper and place her on the scale. She weighed in at 7.5lb. Before I could pull Luna off the tiny scale Dr. Goodnews burst out with tremendous excitement, "WOW, look at her! She looks fantastic!" Well, I'm biased, but I think she does too. He was taken aback by her pink skin (heart babies often look blue-also called cyanosis, due to poor blood circulation and low oxygen saturations). To be fair, Luna can occasionally look a bit blue-especially when she's screaming herself into oblivion-a blue ring forms around her mouth that one otherwise might not notice if you didn't know what to look for.
Dr. Goodnews continued on with his exam and listened to her heart and lungs and checked her eyes and ears-all checked out with flying colors. Then he lifted her just under the rib cage on both the right and left side-causing her to form a pretzel each time-which apparently was a good thing and showed she had good muscle tone.
The only downer was she conveniently pooped in the office so they were able to check her stool-and once again trace amounts of blood were found. Dr. Goodnews wasn't the least bit concerned and simply told me to eliminate all dairy and specifically to read all labels for casein and whey. Um, easier said than done...who knew dairy existed in EVERYTHING. More on Mama's battle with no dairy later-but for now let's just say if anyone knows where I can purchase a 'dairy-patch' please do tell. Soy icecream just doesn't compare to a Friendly's mint chocolate chip frappe-which I'll admit to sometimes eating 2 a day when pregnant with both girls (and I wonder why I gain 50lbs each pregnancy).
Our next appointment is Monday in Boston-a big follow-up. Will report back then. For now I must get back to Mister Rogers...he's touring Colonial Williamsburg where there's a parade and the band is playing Yankee Doodle Dandy. Sienna wants to see "more-some 'lins" (translates to 'More violins') and then have a parade of our own. Now, where did I put that slide whistle?!
Sienna sporting her own faux cyanosis brought on by copious amounts of blueberry jelly.
2 comments:
Wow! I am so happy to hear all of the updates and that everything is going well. I can't wait to see everyone and meet little Luna. I promise to deliver a mint chocolate chip frappe sometime soon.
P.S. - the blueberry jam pic of Sienna is awesome!
Lots of love from Aimee & Andy
I'm so happy to read Luna is doing so well. :)
Not to make your life more difficult, but you may want to consider cutting soy from your diet. The majority of people with allergies to dairy also have allergies to soy. On the bright side, I liked rice milk better than I did soy milk.
Phaedra
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