neuro apt

 i gave parker's doc a day to send the referral info to the neurologist

and called on wednesday to see if i could make the apt.

and she had an opening  THAT friday, as in 2 days later.

it was nice they got us in so quick, but it was an 11am apt.

not the most opportune time (lunch time, nap time) but i agreed.

i was so excited i wasn't going to have to stress for another week.

i had to go online to their website and print off an 8 pg packet of papers to fill out.

luckily d got off work and go with me to help wrangle him

or listen so i didn't miss anything.

sooo overall i left feeling like it was a good apt.

i really liked the doctor. he was very knowledgeable yet had good bedside manner too.

he was also really good with parker who still isn't a huge fan of strangers.

there weren't any nurses in that office, which i found kinda odd.

the doctors themselves come get the patients from the waiting room.

we were brought into an exam room that was more like a playroom

with a bunch of toys sprawled out over the floor

and the exam table pushed up against the wall totally out of the way.

he watched parker play and asked us a ba-zillion questions.

"did i have brother, did my mom have brothers, did my moms sisters have boys"

trying to find if there were any development delays in any male relative.

none that we know of.

he did a couple tests with parker on my lap.

poked and prodded him a little.

and then asked us more questions.

"when did he hit other milestones, was he a good eater, a good sleeper...."

i mentioned the cpk test (blood work he had at 15mon)

and he said a level of 280 is in his normal range and doesn't raise any suspicion.

so after all that he sat up on the exam table and talked to us

for about 30-45 min while parker sat on my lap and chugged some juice.

he was very thorough and answered lots of our questions.

basically he said "i'm sorry, but i don't know."

patient's like parker are the ones that frustrate he and his colleagues

as well as their parents.

there was nothing about parker that raised a red flag for any kind of disorder.

nothing that said, "oh he might have this.

or because he does this he might have that"

so that leaves us to question, is this just the way parker was meant to develop? at his own pace?

or is there some underlying issue. 

he has had patients who had delays and didn't walk until 20-24 months

and was never able to find any explanation for it.

so basically he said the ball was in our court as to how to proceed.

if we wanted to dig deeper and try to figure out if there is an issue

his first plan of action would be to do some bloodwork.

he could check his chromosomes and see if there was a genetic link

or any type of mutation on his chromosomes.

 he talked to us about if or when we planned on having more kids

because IF there was something wrong with parker and IF it was genetic

we would have a 25% chance of having another child with the same thing.

now, he said that it was totally none of his business but wanted to make us aware of the fact.

if we so chose, we could have 10 more kids despite that,

it was ultimately up to us.

so then IF all those blood tests come back normal/negative

the next step would be a sedated MRI of his brain.

danny says no way, no how.

i've gone back and forth about it. i know what all sedation requires

and all the risks involved. and i don't think it would be worth it to me, at this point.

we will cross that bridge when we get there.

but there's probably only a 1% chance we will do that.

so d and i quickly discussed while sitting in the exam room,

decided we would go ahead and do the blood work.

it's no more traumatizing than getting a shot (as awful as those are)

he survived ok last time and didn't hold any resentment towards us.

we just feel that IF there's something wrong, we want to know

to give him the best possible help/treatment he might need.

the neurologist was nice enough to call pj's pediatrician personally

and add on what blood work he wanted for his low weight gain

and add it on so pj didn't have to get poked more than once.

it was finally time to leave. i had a good feeling as we left.

relieved he couldn't diagnose parker with anything, 

but frustrated at the same time that he couldn't.

but then there was a huge annoying screw up with his blood work though.

 we went straight down the lab from the office

(i was unaware they built a pediatric lab since i worked there)

after waiting like 20 min with a tired, hungry, crabby toddler

they decided to walk us down to the ped lab.

and after waiting in a room there, they came and told us that whatever

the doctor ordered could only be drawn on Mon-Thur!

seriously!?

i was beyond annoyed. so i'm taking off work tomorrow

to take him back down to the hospital/doc building

to get it drawn because it can't be drawn anywhere else.

plus we have to wait up to 3 weeks for the results.

as you might know, i'm not the most patient person around :)

so there's my update.

i'm sure there will be bits and pieces i forgot to write that i'll add here and there.

i promise tomorrow i'll actually do a post with some pictures :)

carpe diem

SEP